A little birdy fills Dan Kennedy in on what Herald Publisher Pat Purcell told the troops the other day - including the assertion that, rather than losing money last year, the Herald actually made a small profit. Kennedy raises questions about the post-CNC Herald, but explains why he wouldn't count the Herald out.
Charles Swift, meanwhile, ponders whether traditional "full-service" newspapers can survive in a world of micro-content.
Dan Kennedy asks tons of questions about Pat Purcell's sell-off of the CNC papers, chief among them: If the Herald is losing $2 million a year, and all the CNC deal did was eliminate the Herald's debt, how long can the paper last? But he credits Purcell for appearing to chose the higher calling of journalism over profits - rare in the business these days (he also looks at some interesting facets of the CNC part of the deal).
Mats Tolander notes that the real new owner of the Herald's CNC suburban and Boston neighborhood papers is not Liberty Group Publishing but Fortress Investment Group, a New York investment firm that owns Liberty:
Fortress Investment Group specializes in originating, structuring and providing customized financing solutions to corporate, real estate and asset-based borrowers.
The Herald says it is selling its CNC newspapers to Liberty Group Publishing, which owns small newspapers in 16 states. The company will rename itself GateHouse Media and will also buy the Quincy Patriot-Ledger and the Brockton Enterprise. Terms of the CNC deal were not announced; the Patriot-Ledger and Enterprise went for $165 million.
Remember last month when the Globe reported that the state Ethics Commission was banning political speech in the State House? The Ethics Commission quietly says the Globe is wrong. The Globe says the commission backtracked.
John Daley, one of Boston's Finest, takes issue with a Herald story in which a New York cop is allowed to wax outraged in anonynimity about some Boston Police event that he has nothing to do with:
Especially when she's politically connected (John and Theresa Kerry issued a statement!). But when thugs shoot up Roxbury, eh, happens every day, apparently.
Or which will get bigger play?
1. South End woman has finger bitten off while trying to rescue her pet dog from two attacking pit bulls.
2. Roxbury 19-year-old grazed above his eye while leaving his grandmother's house - then chased down the street by two thugs who fired more shots, wounding a 17-year-old girl.
Today, the Globe's City & Region section reports on a new telescope in Harvard (the town, but owned by the school); the Herald ponders whether Neil Entwistle's fully aroused nude photo was computer-enhanced.
Two people stabbed at Downtown Crossing, two people shot in Roxbury and two people wanted for an armed home invasion, also in Roxbury. Details.
... There were white sheets covered in blood everywhere and pools of it pouring down the street. ...
... So, I was walking to my dorm from class, and I heard this HUGE crash. ...
Boston LiveJournal discussion of the collapse.
... This instance of near-me-but-not-me fatality makes me thankful to be alive. ...
Photos from the scene. Even more photos.
Photos of the scene several hours later.
... I got as close as I could and it was mayhem down there ...
There but for the grace of God ...
The Globe (eyewitness accounts; MP3 audio from the scene) and the Herald (coverage; blog with eyewitness accounts) showed they can cover breaking news as it happens. At least on a weekday downtown (as opposed to a Sunday evening in Roxbury). But you'd think somebody in the boston.com newsroom might have been able to convince somebody in the ad department to turn off the "breaking glass" floating ad for a bit:
John Keith notes that even though Boston Police were fairly quick to release news of those five shootings in an hour on BPDNews, neither the Globe's nor the Herald's Web sites had anything until at least midnight, when the early Herald press run started and they posted a print story. Channel 4 did have something up by 11 p.m., along with a brief mention of a fatal stabbing on Hyde Park Avenue that BPDNews has yet to acknowledge.
Congratulations to the Boston archdiocese's house organ, the Pilot, for giving the Herald a new reason to put The Flick on the front page. That's three front-page flickfests in a row; four out of the past five front pages (damn you, Tom Reilly!).
We could be watching history in the making, folks. Remember last year, when the Herald somehow figured out how to get the Globe/Metro story on the front page five days in a row? The plucky tabloid's now had front-page Scalia chin-flick coverage two days in a row - and three out of the past four days (must've been hell in the newsroom on Monday evening - deciding whether to go with The Flick or a scoop on what a loser Tom Reilly is - they went with Tom the Loser).
On Internet128, though, Mats indicates a certain weariness with the story:
... By now I wish my almost favorite Supreme Court Justice really had flipped-off the delicate reporters from the Herald, and then thrown a gavel at them. Followed by a chair.
Dan Kennedy declares the gesture not obscene.
But give 'em credit for following up "Scalia: I'm no Soprano" with "Soprano: I'm no Scalia."
Dan Kennedy reads the tea leaves in this Herald column about FCC rules against cross-media ownership and concludes that Herald owner Pat Purcell could buy his way onto the local airwaves once somebody buys all his suburban papers. Which would be kind of interesting given that the reason Purcell owns the Herald to begin with is because Ted Kennedy managed to force Rupert Murdoch to chose between owning the Herald and buying Channel 25 back in the last 1980s.
You can almost hear the rumbling at both papers.
New York Times Co. quarterly results, which basically say: Boy, New England's sucky.
Boston Herald managing editor Joe Dwinell has been all over the Entwistle case on his blog - and you should see all the comments he's getting. But he has a request for his fans: let him get some work done.
Joe and I once worked together in the world's smelliest news bureau, but that was a lifetime ago.
Long-time local TV reporter David Boeri writes in the Phoenix:
As Whitey makes him famous, the Bulger-scribe doesn't have to worry about facts ...
In yet another case of New Yorkers trying to take over Our Fair Hub, Steve Bailey (of the New York-owned Boston Globe) reports that Rupert Murdoch is negotiating with the Globe to start printing copies of his New York Post on Globe presses.
If true, the news can hardly be good at the once Rupe-owned Boston Herald, Dan Kennedy writes:
Rupe to Herald: Drop dead!
Scores of Boston-area hookers are using a major Internet site popular with soccer moms, apartment seekers and job hunters to post hundreds of daily pornographic ads for unbridled sex romps that can be set up within minutes. ...
Craigslist is popular with soccer moms? In any case, Carpundit hopes the Herald follows up on this shocking story:
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