On the street, dismay and shock over the Globe's woes
By Maria Sacchetti and Eric Moskowitz, Globe Staff
Long-time Boston Globe readers were stunned today that the New York Times Co. is threatening to close the newspaper unless the newspaper's unions accept $20 million in concessions, possibly including pay cuts and the loss of company contributions to employees' pensions.
“What’s going on?” said one reader, Daniel Doyle, 70, who was clutching a small coffee and a doughnut outside of Verna’s Donuts in Cambridge. He has read the newspaper every day for 40 years. “The Globe is the biggest paper going. How can they lose so much money when they’re the No. 1 newspaper in Massachusetts?”
He called the Globe a Bay State institution “like John F. Kennedy.”
“If you took the paper away and I can’t read sports, what am I getting up in the morning for?” he asked.
But another man at the doughnut shop shrugged in indifference.
“I don’t really read the Globe,” said 20-year-old Mike Spartichino, an electrician who prefers to watch TV news at dinnertime with his mother in Arlington. “It’s too big. I have to work and all that.”
Since the news broke, some critics of the Globe, writing anonymously on the boston.com website (see comments on this story below), have lambasted the paper for what they call its liberal bias. On the street in Boston and several other communities today, most people approached by Globe reporters said they were sorry to hear of the Globe's troubles.
Some people were critical and others said that with people on the go and getting their news from the Internet, the Globe was simply a victim of changing times.
Down Massachusetts Avenue at the Out of Town News newsstand in Harvard Square, Tommie W. Whitener, an attorney from San Francisco area, said the Globe's woes reminded him of the San Francisco Chronicle's financial problems.
"I think it's a damn shame. I think we've got to keep them alive as best we can. I don't know if they'll all survive. I hope they do. I like newspapers. I like to hold them and read them. They're an integral part of my life," he said.
Nishant Nayyar, 27, of Boston was picking up copies of the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. "I think it's kind of tragic, but unfortunately, that's where the newspaper industry is going, except for these two," he said.
Tony Butler, 50, raised in Boston but now a New York City resident, said he was "not particularly enamored with the Globe these days. I think it's a little too politically correct for my tastes. I mean, I generally consider myself a liberal but I think it goes a little too far."
"I would read the Times over the Boston Globe any day, it's just a better paper," said Butler, a New York Times reader.
Amy Mossman, 43, of Cambridge, said, "I'm very angry about it. I don't want to lose our local paper. I've been reading the Globe since I was a kid. It's the paper that covers all of my local events. It has a home here, it knows what goes on here."
At Breads 'n Bits of Ireland, a breakfast spot in downtown Melrose, the topic of the Globe's potential demise bounced from table to table in the cozy dining room.
"It'd be a tragedy if the Globe were to close," said Steven Locke, 45, a Melrose lawyer and father of two boys, who once was a Globe paperboy in Newton.
"Could you imagine our kids going through life not knowing what a paper is?" said his wife, Suzanne, who teaches at a Cambridge private school.
Still, the Lockes admitted, they don't get the paper every day. Mornings are consumed with getting the boys ready for school and rushing off to work, where Steven Locke reads boston.com.
"I'd pay five cents an article online," he offered.
Nearby, Jean Gorman spoke up for the print edition. "I want my newspaper in my hand," said Gorman, an office manager for a real estate firm. "I want a real paper."
From the next table, Eric Wildman chimed in, calling the Globe a "victim" of the success of its own free website. He used to subscribe daily but now pays only for the Sunday edition.
"Nobody has time in the morning anymore to get up and read the paper," said Wildman, 33, a human resources manager who learned about the possible closing of the Globe on the political blog BlueMassGroup.
John Cinella, a 69-year-old lawyer who rises at 5:30 a.m. to read the paper, said he cherished his daily paper, and a stack of memorable editions.
"I've got Globes from the Great Fire, all the Red Sox victories, the Patriots," said Cinella, whose three boys all once delivered the paper.
Fifth-grader Connor Locke piped up. "When Obama won, we saved the newspaper," the 11-year-old said. "And when Papi hit the 52 home runs, I framed that and I have it hanging on my wall."
His mother beamed.
"Can't frame the computer screen," she said.
At the opening of the Grove Hall branch library, Jeannette Sisco of Mattapan counted the ways the Globe has touched her life over the years. The long-time school librarian posts stories about her students on a "Wall of Fame" at the West Roxbury Education Complex. She sends articles to relatives around the country. She used to lead a "Friday night ritual" clipping coupons for three elderly uncles, all former Pullman railroad porters from the South End.
"It's a wonderful source of freebie-weebies in the city," said Sisco. "Every single day I look for book talks and artistic activities that can be engaged in for F-R-E-E. It’s going to be a real loss in these tough economic times."
In Woburn, every morning, retired maintenance man Ollie Gonsalves rises, gels back his hair, and heads to the Moore & Parker newsstand to buy his daily Globe. The clerks at the 115-year-old newsstand and smoke shop always save him a copy if the stack dwindles.
"The Globes run out quick here," said Gonsalves, 80.
He lingered today in Moore & Parker, under the old tin ceiling and near the pile of newspapers, and contemplated the end of the Globe with friend Paul DeVito.
"That's too bad they're going to close the Globe," said DeVito, 68, a car salesman.
"Tell me about it," said Gonsalves, who clips articles to mail to his sister in North Carolina, a Woburn transplant. "I won't read anymore."
Gonsalves said he likes the editorial page, which he said stands up for people like him: "I'm a little guy."
Harry McDonough III, another Woburn native, didn't share that view -- but wanted to hold fast to his Globe just the same.
"I'll tell you what, I'm a meat-eating, God-fearing, gun-toting, right-wing conservative white male, and proud to be that way," said McDonough, a 41-year-old hardware store manager. "But I do read the Globe to see how the other side thinks. That’s important. Knowledge is power.”
One civic leader expressed shock at the idea of a world without the Globe.
"To someone like me who's very involved in civic life in the communities, it’s unimaginable," said Paul S. Grogan, president of the Boston Foundation, calling the Globe the "civic glue" that keeps the public together. "Almost every leader in Boston -- in the public sector, the private sector and the nonprofit sector -- reads the Boston Globe every day. It gives the community a shared sense of what the issues are, what the challenges are ... I just don't see that being replaced."
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A 70-year-old saying the Globe is his lifeline, and a 20-year-old shrugging off the Globe's crisis. This is what you call a generational gap.
Executives from the Times Co.
I find it interesting the comments from all the people who do not like the Globe, read the Globe, Why? The paper is being read online or in print, it is up to the Executive of the Times Co. to become resourceful and solicit online advertisement dollars. I see it as a marketing failure of not being proactive / insightful / mindful of the future and how it will unfold. If the Globe was a plane flying over the ocean full of Time Executive and an emergency required they had to toss out dead weight, they would all vote to get rid of the pilot.
One of the despicable actions of the “Times” are taking advantage of the bad situation: well things are tough all over, yes they are and union busting or simply put contract breaking is not the answer.
This is similar to the AIG Executives and the differences of attitude with UAW. The public ignorant of union contracts wrongfully believes it is ok to cut someone else’s money because they are not making the same money. At the same time the Times Co. Executives are being monetarily cared for.
For the people who don’t read the Globe please quit making comments. For the marketing group of the Globe, find the money, and for the executive of the Times Co please find a conscience.
To the Globe-haters who will write in to say "good riddance," keep in mind that as much local political corruption as we have around here already, we'll have even more corruption as a one newspaper town because less of it will get attention. Most recently the Globe broke the Marian Walsh appointment story and ran with it. "News" is not something that comes about by magic. Plus, you'll lose so much of your "entertainment" if you're no longer able to complain on the Globe comment forum. :-)
So one reader is surprised? Doesn't really bear out the headline, does it? Too bad you no longer have a Mike Barnicle or a Patricia Smith to fabricate some more compelling man-on-the-street quotes.
Then again, maybe that's why the Globe is failing.
i have no use for print news, it is a waste of trees and TV news is horrible, i totally depend on the web for news. it seems rather obvious, that print news is no longer profitable. it's time for the globe to wake up and charge for online subscriptions or go out of business and the unions are delusional what is a pension? who gets those?
those are only for government employees
Other than Charles Emerson Winchester III and anyone east of 495...nobody will care of the Globe goes under...
Oh, boy, it seems like everything is going to hell.
(Sheepish: Actually, I read the Globe on-line. But I read it every day and am in NY.)
Everyone would be better off if they kept publishing the globe and closed the new york times
The death of the Globe should come as no surprise to anyone who works, or has worked, there. The executives who run the business side of the Globe have failed miserably in partnering with other divisions and addressing market changes that everyone knew were coming. Revenue has been steadily declining while expenses have been steadily increasing for years. Turnover in the finance department is astronomical because of its leadership team lacks basic business acumen. They don’t know how to run a profit-making company. They only know how to lose money.
O God - how self serving can you commie pinko's be. Don't worry - IF the Globe goes away - we'll all survive just fine. Maybe a news organization that tells the TRUTH about Boston Corrupption, Kennedy Murders, and the gay agenda will arise.
Good. Maybe a less biased paper will spring up in it's place when the economy returns.
“The Globe is the biggest paper going. How can they lose so much money when they’re the No. 1 newspaper in Massachusetts?”
Easy, bad money management, specifically, ridiculous bloated union benefits, lifetime guarantee of jobs, etc. Unions had a very necessary role at one point in history. Now we're seeing how much they are the cause of the undoing of business and industry, and ultimately costing jobs.
Truth is, the Globe has not been wonderful for many, many years. The editorial page has long been consistently and predictably liberal and a bore to read. Even the sports pages have become moribund with far too much "balanced" coverage of women's sports and extravagant and expensive coverage of marginal sports like figure skating and tennis that have diminished the coverage of the mnainstream sports. Most of the good writers have already left for various reasons and the Globe has become just a shell. While I regret the loss of quality at the Globe I shall not grieve the ultimate demise of this damaged newspaper.
Interesting that this article ignores the 300+ comments on the globe website on the subject....
Perhaps if the Globe weren't so politically biased, and so poor at fact-checking, more people would be willing to pay for it.
Is this an attempt by the Globe to lobby for itself? If so, please do a little more than get a couple of quotes from a guy at a coffee shop. Thanks.
You have stooped to the lowest of lows, actually writing an article praising yourselves and how people can't go on living without you...pathetic...
Not surprising since the Globe ceased being a newspaper and became a propaganda organ years ago. Combine that with the realities of the marketplace and the result is................
Maybe someone who knows journalism and has a few bucks will buy the Globe name and bring it back to life as real newspaper.
Surprise surprise! The Globe like many other dishonest papers are taking a beating becuase they don't have the peole's trust anymore. These papers are ideologocal clearing houses for liberal points of view. Its no wonder that the likes of the NY times, Seattle Post, San Diego Trib, Chicago Trip are all on the verge of bankruptcy. Those in the liberal camp will retort that its becuase of the emergence of internet based media outlets and cable news. BS,,, I still buy a paper every day wherever I happen to be although I have to be carefull to read between the lines
I read the Globe but I have not always been a fan. What bothers me, as a reader, has been its liberal agenda. It has always seemed to be more interested in promoting issues, like gay marriage. Sometimes it seems to be more interested in being PC than anything else. This agenda seeps into every aspect of the paper.... even the sports. This agenda undermined its ability to present articles that people want to read and caused the Globe to lose its relevency. Mantras about "Global Warming" would never be questioned in the pages of the Globe.
What I have liked is its breadth and depth. There's no question that it's our area's most important news organization and deserves to survive.
The Globe has, too often, been more interested in being cozy w/our state's political hierarchy than in doing what a real newspaper needs to do........... which is question authority. Make the comfortable uncomfortable. A good sign has been the Globe's coverage of Marian Walsh situation and Speaker DiMasi. These are exactly the kinds of stories the Globe needs to print.
Being a lot less PC and a lot less willing to challenge authority will go a long way toward keeping the Globe alive and thriving.
Best news in years. RIP
This is hilarious. Good riddance! Here's a scoop Maria and Eric... start looking for a new job!
The last time I felt like this the Boston Braves announced they were moving to Milwaukee.
It seems that all newspapers are struggling, probably because of the internet. But the Globe is mainly struggling because it stopped being about news a long time ago. During the past decade or two, the Globe has instead concentrated on advancing its liberal agenda. Unfortunately for them, they did so to an extreme that many not only disagree with but are disgusted by. The Globe is getting what it deserves.
It's the unions fault,it's the ecomony, it's the old readership it's George Bush's fault!
I quit reading the Globe years ago because of it's biased reporting.
I'm sorry to see the Globe's demise but "I could have told you so".
Sweet! No more whining about cops parking where they please to... This is great news.
Welcome to the internet world.....The demise of a major propaganda sheet is a step forward.
It took two reporters to write this "story"? Really? Boy, that says a lot about the mess the Globe is in. Do union rules require two writers on a puff-piece?
Lets face it, You have to read at least two or three different newspapers to get the facts. This paper or boston.com gets about 20% of my attention. The sports is its best section. If I only cared.
People are seeing the light.
What is taking so long??? Bye, bye... You won't be missed at all. That is the destination of all liberal newspapers!
terrible times we're living in...that a NYC paper can decide to shut down a Boston one is criminal. People in Boston should be po'd.
Remember those famous words...Goes around comes around!!
Are you kidding me? Where in this story is the headline validated? Shouldn't the headline read "70 year old man at doughnut shop is surprised, other doesn't care that Globe is dying"
No wonder no one wants to buy that rag anymore. Ever hear of serious, unbiased reporting?
Time for you to go. Your completely bias intrepretation of news events with seldom regard to the truth has created and sustained an ignorant mindset amongst many MA illegals and legals.
Hopefully the illegal drivers who deliver the Globe go away with you.
Although "long-time ... readers were stunned," this article only mentions a solitary example. And I love how the only other quote is from a guy painted as, what, finding it too much of a chore to read? Nice work.
Yes, it would be a terrible loss if Boston lost its only non-hysterical, well edited, mostly grammatically correct print source of daily news; however, if this is the average level of reporting (your intrepid journalists on the scene! In the donut store! Performing a perfunctory inventory before filing a hasty story!), it's probably time.
The comment by Mr. Spartichino is typical of generations younger than mine. They essentially no longer read newspapers. Too many actually no longer read. Period. Unless "coerced". (I know - I am a teacher. ) Thus there is little concern among them about newspaper closings around the USA. So sad
The famously liberal Times demanding union concessions? Priceless. Knowing how well unions care for the companies with which they negotiate, don't be surprised if they take the whole thing down just out of spite and stupidity.
Ye gods. Even when writing about its own possible demise, the Globe produces the standard pap: Head to a non-representative locale, get one person to say "yes," get another to say "no."
If it were to happen, you'd be missed, Globe. But not for this.
The Globe is a dinosaur. Let it die.
It's outstanding, in-depth reporting like this that makes the Globe such a treasure.
I would be devastated if the Globe stops publishing, although I realize the print media is in its' death throes. I like to read the paper, handle it, turn the pages as I drink my coffee and get ready for the day Reading online is not the same to me. I think there will be a terrific loss to journalism, the community and everyone if t his is allowed to happen. I hope the unions and The NY Times corp are working on this issue in good faith to resolve this. Time to start charging microfees for accessing online, as many have suggested. And what about raising the cost of delivery/ I would definitely pay a bit more to have my paper.
sign of the TIMES (PUN) I hope the union makes concessions and saves the jobs for these people tough time to be out of work
Unfortunately times have changed. I read the Globe on the internet like i'm sure a lot of people do. The physical act of buying the paper at the news stand is becoming a thing of the past.
Another liberal news paper biting the dust. Maybe the state will wake up now and stop voting for so many crooks or Chavez will by it for them. No Bail Out.
Why stunned? If readers have been paying attention this is old news. The Globe has been under closing rumors for months. The interesting part is the lateness of these proceedings. Is there something on the table that guarantees the paper will stay in business if the unions meet the concessions? Paper readership has dropped and will continue to drop, as have ad revenues. Face the facts, the paper is not the cash cow it used to be and is an outdated format. Unfortunately, the same might be said of unions too.
Like other media outlets in the Boston market the Globe was slow to embrace what people wanted or needed and tried (and succeeded at least for a while) to manipulate the consumers point of reference. I say, let it die a quicker death.
How can anyone be shocked at the news? Anyone who's been paying attention to the news would know that Print has been dying out for years now. Struggling to find a way to be profitable in the digital age...
People would've known all about this...by reading it in the paper.
The globe doesn't get it - dinosaurs!
It took two reporters to write this article, and they only talked to two people ?
Why are you not soliciting feedback from your on-line reader ?s. Don't you think the readers who set up an account and log in have more vested with the Globe than two people in a dougnut shop ? You could solicit reactions from hundreds on line, and get a much more represenatve
BOSTON GLOBE WROTE "Globe's woes stun readers"
We are not surprised at all.
Wow, with such cutting edge stories like this one, I'm surprised the Globe might fold. Did it really only take two reporters to gather all this info? Amazing.
Many people refuse to read the Globe because of its anti Israel stance and its left wing leaning. The Globe is not objective in reporting the news. It is not suprising that it is in trouble.
I say "Shut it down!" if this online article is any indication of the Globe's journalistic standard for homepage, major headline news. How flakey (and self-serving) can you get? The article doesn't mention sources, explain reasons, or differentiates between online and print, with a sensational ("shocked"!) headline that is hardly backed up by 2 man-in-street interviews with a stupidly oversimplified 50% for, 50% against format.
The paper was better before the Times took over. The local interests and the arts section was far more thorough and wide in scope. Maybe the Times should just sell it and it can go back to be the worthy metro area paper it was.
Good, maybe if you stay in business, you'll stop your overly Democrat-biased reporting. That's the main reason you've become irrelevant.
glad this happened, unions give stupid people a job. What happened to every person representing themselves?? If you are not continually challenged, you skirt by, like a state worker. Unions sole purpose is to protect stupid people. ban unions and you ban stupid people. It is as simple as that. Any independent person worth their salt will try to work hard, union people just work within rules, they cannot think for themselves. Unions are the worst.
I am not surprised.
thank god unions are going away, they made this country weaker, because unions dont hold people accountable for their actions, very sad, so this is the best thing!
What do you expect! We live in one of the most corrupt states in the the US and the globe rarely ever gives an apposing view point to politicians and laws that steal our money and tax us to death. Its not a democrat /republican issue, the globe for too long has never apposed anything controversial. The Globe has become buddies with every hack in this town and may finally see what good it has gotten them.
why is this a surprise? unions cause mismanagement of funds, unions are the problem. get rid of unions, get rid of the problem.
Close it down!!!!! w00t w00t!!!
Who is shocked? This paper has been awful for 20 years. This recession is a blessing. We get an opportunity to get rid of the garbage.
why is anyone stunned? The globe was on a WSJ list of the 10 most likely papers to fold in 2009 weeks ago
I smell..... Bailout!!!
Honestly, could care less. Wake up and smell the world wide web.
boy, would I miss The Globe. . . .
Frankly, I am not 'shocked'. The paper has jettisoned it's best writers and replaced them with people who don't know South Boston from the South End. To add to it's woes, the Globe has significantly increased advertising prices, while shrinking the size of the sheet of paper it is printed on. Add in the plunging reader base, and you have a recipe for disaster.
Remember, this is America, a capitalist nation. If the Globe goes under, and there is demand for a competitor to the Herald (and there will be demand), then a replacement will spring up quickly.
The Globe was a far better paper before it sold itself to the New York Times. Now it has too much drivel in it and far more about so called celbrities than city council meetings. Back to basics is sometimes far better than making sure some MBA peawit keeps a job by allowing change for the sake of change.
Dear NTY Board:
Do it!
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.
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.....
but give the middle and lower staff sev packs and outplacement. It ain't their fault.
Any newspaper that keeps Dan Shaughnessy on its payroll for all these years deserves to be shuttered.
Can't. Wait.
Why is this such a surprise? Newspapers are folding across the country. The Globe has been getting thinner and thinner over the last couple of years. Not much advertising sold. The industry is in deep trouble. Didn't people know this? Did they think the Globe was immune?
It was only a matter of time before you weasels started censuring this post with opinions you did not like. You have never had any journalistic integrity and you never will.
Another company going bankrupt that has union employees. Let the market determine wage and maybe you'll be around a little longer.
Its about time, They have tried to pollute peoples minds for years. Good Riddens You reap what you sow and they have been spweing liberal venom for years.
Not really surpised by this story, the Globe is a failing newspaper that is out of touch with mainstream America. It's views and slants on it stories is pushing it away from many readers. It never fails to back failing Dem-O-rats on Beacon Hill and in the governors office, as well as the crooks in Washington.
It would be delicious if this piece of yellow journalism went down the tubes. This paper is nothing but a mouthpiece for the ultra left wing. I wouldn’t even use this rag to wrap fish.
I’m sure the “reporters” could find work at Moveon.org or some other contemporary hate group.
Liberals read the Globe and the New York times as their religious devotionals.
Christians read their Bibles. When liberal devotionals collapse, they collapse with them. Listen to the panic in this article! Bibles never collapse. They never go out of style. Frequently, liberals accuse Christians of being inflexible, dogmatic, incapable of adapting to the modern times. But we see here that the opposite is true. Liberals lose their minds when their views are unpopular and no one will pay for them anymore. Liberals are dogmatic - the globe refuses to change its views, and it can't change the subject. And as far as liberals want government subsidies to hold back history. Inflexible dogmatists!
The sad truth is that today's Globe is not even in the same league as the Globe I read as a teenager. The quality of reporting has plummetted. But I am glad to see that the Globe has maintained its independent, non-biased viewpoint, WAIT>>>>>. Whew! For a minute there I almost forget which paper I was writing about. In the old days, the Globe Spotlight team would have investigated the no show overtime shifts by the MSP at Logan as well as the BPD officers earning more than $200,000 per year including details and overtime. Today's Globe is afraid of investigating the police. Creampuff stories about parking marked crusiers in no parking spaces is NOT investigative reporting.
This Globe is a bunch of pin-headed liberal Democrats posing as journalists. We bid you farewell, sooner is better . . .
The Globe is nothing more than liberal propaganda.
One more biased newspaper is about to go..
The wingnuts are out again, the people so far to the right that Mussolini looks like a liberal to them. "If only you'd pander to our rigid conservatism and raging xenophobia like Fox News, you'd be a financial success." About what you'd expect from an emotional mob of ninnies suffering from group cognitive dysfunction. And really, who gets targeted in this latest drama? Who is being held up as the reason for the imminent collapse? Why, those nasty old unions. Yup, that's what every liberal newspaper does when times get tough, take the opportunity to put the thumbscrews to the working stiff. That's liberal bias at work, right? Radical conservatives need to hire someone to think for them. Obviously they can't figure out what's happening here.
How many people still listen to cassette tapes? Writing, print press, television, internet, etc. --its an evolution. Newspapers will become a luxury item.
Bye Bye Lib Bird....
=================
How about a wonderful new concept to save these newspapers..
Print both sides of all the issues.. Like ....at least investigating Obama's background....
Nahhhh, they never would.... Good Bye Globe....
#14, they mentioned the comments in the article, cant you read?
I am so, so, so sick of all you conservatives whining about how liberal the globe is and how they slant the stories. Ever read Jeff Jacoby? Do you think he's liberal? I don't think so! As for biased, ever heard of Fox news? Do you think Fox would allow some one as liberal as Jacoby is conservative on the air? NO! A more biased one-side group you wont find. Complaining about liberal bias in the news is a deliberate strategy by the Republican party to divert attention from what they are doing. The globe is at best moderate, they are far, far from liberal.
Stop buying AP and UPI feeds that I can read everywhere on-line. Go back to the local, unique, real reporting, and I'll buy the paper. Why spend money for a packaged AP feed?
It is way overdue. Watch these silly unions. 125K to drive a truck...110K to fill inserting machines with parade magazines....way overdue...you cannot run a business with employees getting high end salaries. The Auto Makers, Newspapers all should have been looking to cut expenses as revenue decreased. They have not and now will be run out of business. It is about time...What did we expect all the aging ex-hippies to be able to run corporations? Yah right, it takes one type of exec to keep things at status quo and another to adjust and grow a business... Hippies from the 60's are not capable to do this. .. so we will just bankrupt America as we listen to Sgt Pepper all over again ...fools!!
I live in Denver, CO. I never have lived in MA. I have the Globe on my toolbar on my computers. I think it is one of the best newspapers in the country.
How about more ads on the internet. Required before accessing an article, view the ad?
Get with the times, folks.
Everything is online now. I don't even watch TV. I simply download whatever I want.
Evolve or die.
What a shock! I'm stunned. A one trick pony exposed for the farce it is. Will the Kennedy's try to save the paper that has saved the career of Teddy for too numerous waitress sandwiches? Oh yes the Kennedy's tried to kill the Herald a few years back. Forget that. How will Deval be saved in 2010?
The Globe smeared Ray Shamie and that is why we are stuck with the phony like JFK. (John F. Kerry for you moonbats).
Print pictures from a gay porn site and say they are the US military abusing inmates in Iraq. Yea I'm stunned the Globe is in trouble.
I expect this article (by journalists, in sympathy with journalists) to be biased, quoting more of the people who are sad.
But there's a good way to flush out if all this sympathy for the newspaper is true: Charge $2.00 per day, about the same price as a cup of Starbucks coffee. This will give the people who really want the paper to put their money where their mouths are. If it works, great. If it doesn't, we know not enough people want it any more.
Herein lies the rub.
Depending on the blogger, your comment may or may not go live right away. We want to keep the discourse civil, so this blogger may choose to look over the comments he or she receives before posting them.
I think people forget that the Globe broke the story of the church sex scandal. No one else had, including law enforcement. That action alone makes them worth it in my opinion.
I grew up in downtown Boston and I love the Globe
One big problem is the big debt taken on by the NY Times
The various Globe unions will make the concessions requested and the Globe will survive the tough times
As for those individuals who hate the Boston Globe.... get over it as we need a two paper city
Who will bring out graft and greed in the BPD and beacon hill?
Once the printed paper closes, there will be little content on the paper's online site.
The online business model for all newspapers is a loser.
It is no better than the current printed edition's business model.
The revenue from any newspaper's online edition is too small to carry the costs.
The ad rates for online are pennies on the dollar compaired to the printed ad rates.
The advertisers have moved to online, but the rates are too low.
Whether it is the Globe or any other newspaper, once it stops printing a hard copy it will stop being a news source.
Almost all the news that we read on the Web is from newspapers. It is simply picked up by the various Web sites for free.
Regardless of the political leanings of a paper, losing a paper also means losing investigative reporting.
Newspapers were a necessary part of our democracy.
We better find an alternative if they are all going to die.
It's not a surprise to those that know that Mexican Billionaire, Carlos Slim, bailed out the Times with a $250 million dollar financial deal.
January 19, 2009
"The New York Times Company has entered into a private financing agreement with Banco Inbursa, S. A., Institucion de Banca Multiple, Grupo Financiero Inbursa (”Banco Inbursa”) and Inmobiliaria Carso, companies connected to Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim for $250 million in senior unsecured notes due 2015."
The Times said it would use the new funding to refinance existing debt
, including part of the $400 million that was facing repayment in May. "
The wing-nuts keep repeating the mantra about the Globe's liberal bias, yet they haven't named one example to support their supposed point. I don't see liberal bias in blowing open the Church abuse scandal, or in exposing pension scandals among elected officials, or in reporting on the Bush administration's use of signing statement to evade laws signed by the president. The op-ed and editorial pages are opinion, to be sure, and often predictable (including the pathetic conservative Jeff Jacoby, who makes me pine for Bill Kristol), but they're not reporting. Go ahead, tell me who is going to pay for investigative journalism when the major papers go away.
I'm waiting for the answer wing-nuts.
Globe on line and lousy, stinking bloggers. The Globe as a brand is DEAD. Mmmmm ba bye.
I get that you can't frame a computer. But if you think of digital photograph displays, etc. this comment makes no sense. Cut, Paste, Print and Frame! On line information distribution is the direction the WORLD is moving in! Catch up Boston...I'm 34 years old, an MBA graduate and business professional. Harvard is putting their entire library (the best in the world) on-line. I think if the best b-school is going the on-line direction, sacrificing a few pleasures for some old-timers out of touch with what can keep our economy humming is worth it.
I think it's amazing that it took two people, Maria Sacchetti and Eric Moskowitz, to write this prequil to the Globe's obituary. Please tell me they're not getting paid, too. $1,300,000 a week in losses; big surprise.
Good riddance! Let the unions and the liberal press corps fight over the remaining morsels on this rotting carcass. The people have moved on.
I will miss the sports. However, perfect example of this papers not living in the present is there refusal to allow their sports writers to appear on WEEI radio. Think you could have used the extra pub?
The Liberal NY Times tells Globe Union workers "you gotta give up a ton".,
They say a Liberal turns into a Conservative after he becomes the victim of violent crime--or moves up to high tax bracket.
Liberal Newspaper Owners turn into Conservatives--when they have to deal with Unions in tough times.
I hope they sell the globe, it's only a reiteration of the time's stories with a regional inclusion. And the regional stories are nothing beyond trite or ordinary, nothing in-depth or worthy of purchasing the paper. also boston sucks, so I'm glad to see anything negative happen to your scummy, defiled, low-life city!
Boot the union slugs and hire some of the unemployed to take their jobs. Seek more internet advertising.
It is about time the 'union gliteratti' joined the real world with the rest of us. Quite frankly, this is the tip of the iceberg. You can't get blood out of a stone so the rest of them better re-think their positions. Political postions are irrevelant at this point, either share the pain or go the way of the dinosaur. In the infamous words of that sage leader in Foxboro 'it is what it is'. Unions across the board better bite the bullet, get in the economic boat and start paddling, the option is much more unpleasant for the everyday joe.
I do not read the Globe all the time but they certainly have one of the better sports sections in the country. Too bad as it will make Boston a (1) newspaper town and this is not good. Let;s hope they can roll along somehow.
Red Sox : Yankees as NY(T) : Boston = Winners:Losers
"Radical conservatives need to hire someone to think for them."
Mega dittos.
"Many people refuse to read the Globe because of its anti Israel stance and its left wing leaning."
Prove it.
EVERY newspaper that uses newsprint is not doing well.
In a way it is sad, but this has been a long time coming. The Globe is so cozy with the Democratic establishment in this state that they have failed to do any serious investigative reporting in years. If you want to be read be serious and impartial. The Globe is neither; it is kneejerk liberal and has spent years covering up the problems of the Kennedy family, Kerry, and the Boston political elite. The eight part hagiography they did of Ted Kennedy was nauseating, but oh, so typical. A truly balanced, intelligent paper would certainly do well here, but the Globe is nowhere near that. Speaking truth to power doesn't mean just hating George Bush and promoting the liberal social and political agenda, you know. We've got an embarrassment for a governor, a throroughly corrupt Democrat establishment, and the Globe does all it can to continue to promote the one party state that leads to this corruption.
The unions strike again!
Pure economics are at work with the Globe and it's employees. They are not selling a product that the consumer will buy. No politics are involved. No rightwing or leftwing comments will save this company. They are not selling a product that the public will buy. They can and will be out of business if they don't change. Same is true of the auto industry and the airline industry.
A little down turn in the economy will kill the weakest businesses and that is the free market and free enterprise system at work.
Biased rag, go under.....
Please DO IT Union men and women...Call Their Bluff.
You're going to lose your jobs? Can't put food on the table or pay the bills?
Nobody at the top level of the Globe gave a crap for the last 20 years...so screw their families. They will find work at other newspapers, I'm sure that a famed age-old, crashed newspaper will look great on a resume for those execs, as they run to to...where? The Washington Post? The Providence Journal? These losers have nowhere to go...they are not going to let the Globe die because of Unions. Don't fall for that nonsense.
What will my parakeet read once The Globe is gone?
My prediction is the Globe will continue and the Unions will cave in with huge benefit cuts and possibly some wage cuts. Where else are 700 or more employees going to find newspaper jobs in these trying times. Possibly when the good times revive the workers will get some of their benefits back.....Tony
Well at least the trees won't be crying.
If the Sunday Globe goes away, how will I get coupons to use at the supermarket?
The CEO of the NY Times Company made 5 and a half million last year (you can look it up). I am reminded of the automotive executives who flew in company jets while demanding that union members tear up their contract and throw away their pensions and health care. Any Bostonian who buys the NY Times after this is committing treason to the local cause and to the cause of the working middle class.
I moved to Seattle from Boston almost 13 years ago. At first I was Globe deprived, but was able to catch up by Internet. I decided to subscribe to The Seattle Post- Intelligencer, as it was mostly local Seattle area news, while the Seattle Times had (and has) a lot of news from AP, Reuters, and other wires services.
The Seattle PI closed last month, and now only has an online presence, which I try reading online every day so that it won't completely disappear.
All my life I've had a newspaper to read. My newspaper life started with The New York Times. I probably learned to read using classic comics and the daily newspaper. TV News is increasingly in multi-second sound bites, and as the anchors started chatting, and/or making bad jokes, and not reporting news, I have looked more and more to newspapers to get news. I usually try to read 6 worldwide papers on line a day - headlines and articles.
Boston, please accept my condolences. I have been out-of-sorts since the paper PI died. Can’t even sleep in later or have breakfast without feeling deprived. I do know what you are, and will be, going through. It is another great loss for freedom of information if the Boston Globe shuts down.
I can only hope that NPR isn’t going under as well! That’s increasingly becoming the only source in America for in depth news and background information.
yet one more example of how liberals kill things.
As a 45-year Globe reader and a personal friend of a Globe employee, I am saddened by the news. But honestly, I'd feel worse if the Globe had kept their opinions off the front page. They dug their own grave with me, and many others that know that news reporting should be objective. Its been a tool of the democrat liberal establishment that ruined this state, and probably the nation.