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Calling Dr. Moreau: Time to merge the Globe and Herald?
By david_yamada on Sun, 04/05/2009 - 9:41am
It may seem like a twisted suggestion out of Dr. Moreau's "Island of Lost Souls" -- an action that seems to violate nature itself -- but in this new era of extraordinary business machinations, why aren't we talking about finding a way to merge the Globe and the Herald?
Perhaps a single, merged, Boston daily would help to bring together various tribes of this city that do not interact, listen, and communicate with one another. The Globe and the Herald have their separate readerships and distinct editorial voices, but might it be healthier to encourage that diversity of news, perspective, and opinion under the roof of one (hopefully viable) paper intensely devoted to quality coverage of the metropolitan region?
In another Universal Hub thread, some of us have been talking about a "Boston edition" of the New York Times, should the Globe go under. Theoretically, it could work, in that the local and regional reporters could be moved into a new NYT Boston metro bureau. However, this would be a terrible blow to the civic health of Boston. Boston may not be the hub of the universe, but it's the capital city of an entire region, and it's much more than a New York satellite.
Boston may no longer be able to support two daily newspapers. If the Globe folds, its readership will not flock to the Herald. If the Herald went belly up, its readers would not be buying the Globe. Right now it's the Globe's turn to be on the chopping block, but the Herald has been there and could be again. The constituencies of both the Globe and Herald need a daily paper, and yet the future for both papers is perilous.
It would take some acrobatic negotiations to do this -- perhaps with a brand-new ownership group -- but I'm sure it could be done.
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Comments
So in other words, you want
So in other words, you want Howie Carr and the Herald to save your Globe for you. I'm sure that will happen.
NotWhitey, what's your problem???
Save "my" Globe for "me"?
Maybe instead of twisting the words of others into something that allows you to get something off your chest in a passive-aggressive manner, you could actually consider the merits of what I suggested, pro or con.
Passive: "NotWhitey, what's
Passive: "NotWhitey, what's your problem???"
Aggressive: "Maybe instead of twisting the words of others into something that allows you to get something off your chest..."
Heh
The few Herald staffers I've met have seemed very similar to their Globe counterparts.
However, even if the business considerations of this Frankenpaper you suggest could be worked out, I'd foresee major culture clashes that would have to be managed.
Culturally, I suspect it'd be easier and more likely to succeed if you started from scratch and then selectively poached from both news organizations and from external to both.
The Odd Couple
I'm sure CHB and Borges will get along fine, but I can't wait to read Alex Beam after he gets ahold of that proprietary madlib that Howie's been mailing in for years ...
New Ad Tagline for the Boston Gerald: If you want something bloated with fat, eat a croissant!
the culture clashes would be good
As someone who once unconditionally trashed the Herald but now reads it regularly (albeit online), I'd love to see the mix of perspectives, views, and writing styles.
Right now both papers suffer from a certain predictability. It's an exaggeration for me to say they've become caricatures of themselves, but they're both missing a certain spark. OK, all too often they're just plain dull, like two political parties simply playing to their respective bases.
end of newspapers
Whenever I think about the fact that a tree had to be cut down just so that I could read that some local sports team won a game or the mayor cut a budget, I get a sick feeling in my gut. Like a lot of people nowadays, I get my news on line anyways. I know it is cliche but "save the trees" is what I say. We need the oxygen.
computers are bad too
You know where your computer goes when you're done with it? It gets on a boat, travels to SE Asia, kids pick out the lead and gold parts, and then they burn it. A newspaper doesn't look so bad in comparison, eco-wise.
Where is the business advantage
I just do not see the business advantage to it, usually they would share printing facilities and advertising, but the Herald isn't printed at their plant any more. The Herald has so few reporters, where is the savings there?
Basically this problem isn't going to be fixed until the screen goes dark on boston.com, and the news people whoever they are can go into court and get the copyright law changed so aggregators can't link without charge any more.
Copyright law
I'm pretty sure that we should not change copyright law for that purpose.
Copyright with no copy
The newspapers didn't defend their copyright because they thought they would need to get at other content, or maybe it was their liberal tendencies which gave them sympathy for "the information wants to be free." Or maybe they didn't want to bother and they just thought they could make up the money off the web. Whatever it was, the web has been a bust when it comes to making money. I imagine that the public will come to allow much tougher copyright when there is no news but government press releases.
I think existing copyright
I think existing copyright law is fine. The current abuses in practice wrt news are arguably violations of acceptable use, and can be (and are) addressed with nastygrams and lawsuits.
The ... The Boston Gerald?!
The ... The Boston Gerald?!
All of which brings to mind
All of which brings to mind ...
the sad story of the New York World Journal Tribune, (somewhat) affectionately known as the "widget".
It was a Frankenpaper, composed of body parts of the venerable World-Telegram and Sun, Herald Tribune and Journal American.
All broadsheets, but ...
Well, you could see the Tele in bed with the Trib, both being what were in those days called "moderate Republican" papers, but the Journal, well - Hearst, y'know, and rabid right-wing.
It lasted a hot 8 months.
To be fair, it was not that bad a paper, but it's not as though it actually had a constituency. No one was comfortable with the whole of it. So it died.
(Except for the Sunday supplement, New York Magazine, which I hear is still around.)
So, frankly, I find it hard to imagine anybody, even my wife, a diehard Globe buyer, finding the Boston Gerald worth their time - or money.