Herald aims to slash jobs as it farms out printing

Up to 160 positions may be lost; paper also plans to relocate

The Boston Herald's publisher, Patrick Purcell, says mothballing its press and using outside contractors will help keep Boston a two-newspaper city. (Dina Rudick/Globe Staff)

The Boston Herald plans to lay off 130 to 160 employees this summer and outsource its printing to presses in Chicopee and Norwood.

The Herald's president and publisher, Patrick J. Purcell, disclosed the decision after meeting yesterday with union leaders.

The move is subject to a 90-day negotiation period; Purcell said he wants to devote three months to negotiating severance settlements and hopes to move production off-site by the end of September.

He said the Herald had considered other options, including purchasing a new printing press or reconfiguring the existing press, which is 50 years old.

A Dow Jones & Co. plant in Chicopee will print the paper every day except Friday, when its press is not available; a Norwood press owned by Boston Offset will print Saturday's Herald.

Characterizing yesterday's union meetings as somber, Purcell noted that rumors of the outsourcing arrangement had been circulating for a year or so. The Boston Globe confirmed Friday that it had met with Purcell but decided not to print the Herald.

In an interview at the Herald, Purcell said he doesn't expect the move to cause difficulty in getting late-breaking news and sports scores into the newspaper, which is already plagued by production delays because of its antiquated press.

"There was some question about the impact of the distance [from Chicopee to Boston] on our delivery," he said. "There's a perception that this is going to be difficult, but by and large there aren't that many editions that will be negatively impacted by this move."

Purcell planned to meet with Herald staff members late yesterday and with individual union representatives later this week to discuss the outsourcing.

"The message today was, we've defied the odds for a long time," he said. "All I've ever wanted to do is make the Herald as competitive and successful as I can and to preserve Boston as a two-newspaper town. We've done that, and I want to continue doing that."

During the meeting, Purcell gave a PowerPoint presentation on the Herald's history, prior to detailing its financial woes. Several attendees did not return calls seeking comment. However, one attendee, who asked not to be identified, agreed with Purcell's assessment and said the mood in the room was one more of resignation than of anger.

Another attendee, the Herald's recruitment account executive and the Newspaper Guild of Greater Boston's president, Brian Whelan, e-mailed this statement to the Globe:

"We are saddened by the loss of jobs for those Herald employees who have worked beside us for decades. We will grieve and move on. The Guild represents more than 180 employees whose work will survive along with the Herald. But the same economic forces that have caused this will continue to challenge the Herald as well as the newspaper industry."

Asked whether he'd made other offers to the union that might soften the blow of lost jobs, Purcell said no. "I explained there is cash to pay severance," the publisher said. "We don't have a bottomless pocketful of money to reach into, though."

Purcell also reiterated his disappointment that Community Newspapers Co., the suburban newspaper chain he bought in 2001 and sold in 2006, did not fare better. "I wanted to use that as a springboard to becoming a bigger media company, but it didn't work out," he noted yesterday. "Now we've got to play the hand we've been dealt. This is the best option for us to ensure that 400 people retain their jobs."

Plans are already underway to relocate other Herald operations, including the newsroom. In August, the Herald entered an agreement with National Development to redevelop the six-acre site at Herald Square into a potential mix of office, retail, and residential units.

Yesterday's news comes at a gloomy time for the newspaper business. Buyouts, layoffs, rising energy and transportation costs, and a weakening national economy have made the past few months particularly perilous. Many leading media companies, including Gannett Co., McClatchy Co., and The New York Times Co., which owns The Boston Globe, reported a 10 percent decrease or more in ad revenue during the first five months of 2008.

The Boston Globe continues to wrestle with many of the vexing issues facing Purcell and the Herald. At a meeting Monday, Globe publisher P. Steven Ainsley, New York Times Co. chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and Times Co. chief executive Janet Robinson were questioned about a proposal to Globe unions to reduce wages by 10 percent. In an interview yesterday, Ainsley described the proposed wage cuts as "part of the collective bargaining process - a proposal and nothing more."

The executives also fielded a question about the possibility of consolidating the Globe's printing facilities, which are housed in Dorchester, Billerica, and Millbury.

While the paper is seeking efficiencies in all operations, including production, Ainsley added: "At this point it's very preliminary. Certainly no decisions have been made."

Dan Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, which represents about 900 employees, said yesterday that the collective bargaining agreement is "not open at this time" for renegotiation and that the 10 percent wage cut is unanimously opposed by the Globe's union leaders.

Joseph P. Kahn can be reached at jkahn@globe.com.