Boston Herald

Mondo Times editors    Boulder, Colorado USA

Posted at 9:22pm on Friday, June 19th, 2009

Writing at the Nieman Journalism Lab, Martin Langeveld asks whether Boston can remain a two-newspaper town:

"My prediction is that, ironic as it may seem, Pat Purcell’s Boston Herald will be left as the only daily paper in Boston, and that the Globe will evolve into something different. That doesn’t mean the Herald wins, because in the long run, daily print is just not a sustainable business model anywhere. Or almost anywhere, if we want to hedge that bet a little.

If Denver, Tucson, Albuquerque and Seattle, all with populations in the same ballpark as Boston’s, couldn’t sustain two newspapers, then neither can Boston.

In Boston, for years the Herald seemed to be the one on the ropes, but its ship was more or less righted, for the time being, after owner Pat Purcell sold his chain of suburban weeklies and used the money to pay down the Herald’s debts. Purcell bought the Herald from Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. in 1994 so that News could buy a Boston television station, and Purcell maintained a close relationship with Murdoch over the years. In fact, while still continuing to run the Herald, Purcell currently oversees the Ottaway newspaper subsidiary of Dow-Jones, acquired in 2007 by News Corp. along with the Wall Street Journal. For a time, News had tried to sell off Ottaway, which was not a good fit for its holdings. Ottaway will become known as Dow Jones Local Media Group as of July 1."

The full story:
http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/06/metamorphosis-for-the-globe/

Mondo Times editors    Boulder Colorado USA

Posted at 1:54pm on Monday, June 15th, 2009

Writing in the Boston Herald on June 10, 2009, Joe Fitzgerald wondered how so many union members at the Boston Globe passed on a critical vote about the future of the newspaper:

"It’s easy to understand why 277 Globies voted no, and easy to understand why 265 voted yes.

But what’s impossible to fathom is how 140 convinced themselves their opinions didn’t matter, especially when the outcome was decided by just a dozen votes.

Newspaper people are a passionate bunch. That’s part of the kick of being in this business; you’re surrounded by a cast of colorful characters who are aware of and engaged in the issues of the day. Passivity is not in their makeup.

OK, they’re the Globe and we’re the Herald; we think they’re insufferable and they think we’re irrelevant. When it comes to tribal bickering, the Sox and Yanks have nothing on us.

But at the end of the day we’re all newspaper people."