Shake-up planned at Metro Boston
Metro International S.A. is shaking up its struggling Metro Boston newspaper, with the abrupt departure of the paper's publisher and staff cuts planned at the free daily, according to several Metro employees briefed on the matter.
In Boston, Metro plans to eliminate its Gameday Sox section, a sports editor, the T-Time editor, and about eight sales positions, said the employees.
Stuart Layne, who was hired as Metro Boston's publisher in December 2006, said his departure last night was a resignation. Several employees said Layne resigned under pressure.
The New York Times Co., which owns the Boston Globe and has a 49 percent stake in Metro Boston, is likely to take a larger role in running the Metro Boston operation, the employees said. A New York Times spokeswoman and Boston Globe spokesman declined comment.
"The Globe and the Metro were taking a different direction than what I was brought in for. I was brought in to grow the business. It didn't grow was fast as the joint venture had hoped," Layne said today in a phone interview.
No replacement for Layne has been named.
Rob Patterson, chief executive of the US Metro properties, met in Boston yesterday and today with the publishers of the three papers. Other cuts and leadership changes are expected at the Metro newspapers in Philadelphia and New York. All three US Metro papers are up for sale. Patterson, who could not be reached for comment, is expected to announce the changes today.
The US newspapers -- Metro Boston, Metro New York, and Metro Philadelphia -- have been a drag on the company's earnings in recent years, losing more than $10 million in the past 12 months, according to company filings. In October, Metro International said it began a strategic review of its underperforming operations.
Representatives from billionaire Philip Anschutz's newspaper company, which publishes free daily papers under the Examiner name, were approached by the company handling the sale of the papers. But Anschutz, who owns free newspapers in San Francisco, Baltimore, and Washington D.C., was not interested, according to a spokesman.
Metro's US papers are free newspapers published Monday through Friday targeting young professionals. The papers, handed out at city subway stations, are designed for a 20-minute read during morning commutes.
(By Jenn Abelson, Globe staff)
