Jack Welch

Adam Reilly writes he could do it for $1.2 million or so - the cost of a start-up online news venture in Minneapolis, and chump change to somebody like Welch.

Ed. refugee-from-print note: That assumes that Welch and his undead pal Barnicle would have the least interest in actually doing something innovative, as opposed to simply buying our local paper of record because they have egos the size of Rhode Island and like the idea of being media moguls. Recall during the initial fooferall involving Welch and the Globe that Welch seemed to want to ditch boston.com.

Michael Pahre compiles and analyzes the positions of at-large candidates on the issue, which might become a local one should Suffolk Downs become one of the finalists for a casino license (or even just try again to get slots).

Meanwhile, Dan Kennedy writes it's a good thing Jack Welch never got far with his proposal to buy the Globe, since one of his partners was a part owner of Suffolk Downs:

... How would you have liked the Globe to be reporting on a casino bid involving one of its co-publishers? Ugh.

Did Jack Welch and Jack Connors' bid for the Globe just coincidentally coincide with that letter from Ted Kennedy supporting Globe union workers? John Ellis writes in the Wall Street Journal there may be a link - Harry at Squaring the Boston Globe summarizes for those of us who don't have WSJ subscriptions.

Mwa-ha-ha!

According to the Times, Jack Welch has talked to Herald Publisher Pat Purcell about joining in on that Globe bid, the one it turns out that, despite what the Globe reported yesterday, the Times didn't actually say definitively no to. The Times story also says Welch's wife Suzy is "enamored" of the idea of owning a newspaper (aw, wouldn't that be cute: A copy of the Globe wrapped in a red ribbon under the Christmas tree!) and further identified her as a "former editor of the Harvard Business Review" without explaining exactly how she became a former editor (Jack, you explain it).

Dan Kennedy considers just what sort of media boss Welch would be (again) - he's not liking what he sees in his record as chief potentate of NBC.

So former GE honcho Jack Welch and local ad honcho Jack Connors might try to buy the Globe - for about half what the New York Times paid for it back in 1999.

Dan Kennedy, who has been arguing for a locally owned Globe for awhile now, says this might be a case of the wrong buyers at the wrong time, even if the Times agreed to sell (which it says it's not interested in). He notes that Mike Barnicle the Undead is involved and that the prospective owners are "unsure" if they'd want boston.com:

I have to say that Times Co. ownership looks pretty good compared to the Welch crowd. Perhaps my own last name will allow me to get away with a bit of ethnic profiling, but this looks like the Revenge of the Pasty-Faced Irishmen. This is Old Boston, not New Boston - a nostalgia move, about the past rather than the future.

The Outraged Liberal calmly discusses Globe issues, including what he says is an impending upturn in the local ad market (driven in part by the new Nordstrom's at the under-construction Uber-Natick Mall) and the credibility issues the new owners would face:

... Mrs. Welch, the former AP reporter Suzy Wetlaufer, doesn't have the highest ethics rating in the business after sleeping with the married man (Welch) she was interviewing for the Harvard Business Review.

In fact, about the only person with a lower credibility rating is their pal Mike Barnicle -- dumped from two local newspapers for a combination of serial plagiarism and laziness above and beyond the call of duty. Any deal that includes a revitalized Barnicle presence in Boston is a bad one. ...

Harry at Squaring the Boston Globe though, says a new regime would bring some much needed discipline to the insufferably arrogant newspaper people now running that media zoo, such as the ones who got local pols to get involved in their contract dispute with Globe management. Also:

... It it delicious to imagine the distress that Barnicle's presence at such an early discussion might cause among the self-righteous folks on Morrissey Boulevard. ...

Nobody's approached me about the deal.