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Times threatens to shut Globe without concessions from unions

Adam Reilly reports that the Globe's New York overlords have given Globe unions a 30-day ultimatum: Agree to $20 million in concessions or Boston becomes a one-paper town.

Dan Kennedy: I am told the Times Co. is serious as a heart attack regarding its threat to close the paper.

Ironically, a "Chronicle" segment tonight is about the crisis facing newspapers in Boston - although as I type, they're pointing to g as the Globe's last great hope.

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Comments

Lame.

Just sell the paper to a local owner and begone, Times Co.

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My first reaction was to start mentally assigning blame, but I'd like to hear more of the story.

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Times co. threatens to shut down Globe; says paper is on track to lose $85 million this year.

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Over at WingoSquare.com, they're laying in extra supplies of paper towels so that the regulas can wipe all that spittle off their screens as they try to both dance victory jigs and type how overjoyed they are at the news. Nah, I'm not going to link to it, I'm lazy tonight.

But looks like some of them have made their way over to the Globe story, where they express deep sympathy for the hundreds who could soon be out of work try to wipe all that spittle off their screens as they try to both dance victory jigs and type how overjoyed they are that the greedy pig unions who are completely to blame for the Globe's financial meltdown will finally be getting theirs.

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The comments aren't much better on the Globe's story about its own possible demise. I guarantee you no one AT the Herald -- as opposed to some of its readers -- are rejoicing over this.

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Dan Kennedy posts a report from a speech Globe editor Baron gave just yesterday on the future of journalism.

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So this is the continuing "strategy" to save the Globe, a seemingly irreversible downward spiral.

I'll stop short of agreeing that this is union busting. The unions are still in place even after concessions. But it would be interesting to see the Times Co. books to verify that these drastic measures are necessary.

In the absence of a sustainable, forward looking business model, this is only prelude to more of the same.

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10:45 p.m. and still nothing about the story on nytimes.com, even as every other national news organization files rewrites of the Globe's own story.

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BTW...

Did last weeks paper have the city weekly session after all or did it go out without a goodbye?

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and run it as a public service foundation with a modest return on investment. God knows the Globe has run enough asskissing stories about Harvard over the years, so nothing would change there. Not to mention the hyping of BC sports. Make John Silber the editor. If he's not up for it, Nick Negroponte.

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The Globe's editorial page honchos have defined the world of worthy ideas as those largely emanating from Harvard.

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But I wouldn't put that sawed-off (godwin) Silber in charge. That would kill everything - a psychopath who is rapidly becoming a senile psychopath. Far worse than Rupert Murdoch, that. Negroponte might not want anything to do with it.

The big universities do have large publishing people, however, and they might be qualified to step in, even if they didn't have household, name-brand names.

Then there's always Chomsky :-P ...

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Silber in charge. That would kill everything - a psychopath who is rapidly becoming a senile psychopath.

Aah, but if he'd only beaten Weld, what an education system we'd have! The man brought BU from a third rate to a second-rate institution, for God's sake!

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Herod was a great builder too, as was Octavius ... much easier to get things done with despotism ...

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I think you need someone who understands and believes in the mission of news, is utterly dedicated to truth and fairness, and (here's where university people will most tend to fail) holds the priorities of journalism over those of particular societal goals/perspectives.

All of those names you mention are scary.

Your joking suggestion of Chomsky is interesting to consider, but, I think, he's nonviable:

(1) He is largely reviled in many quarters for his claims, and if you thought news organizations tended to be perceived as "liberal propaganda" *before*...

(2) He does seem to value meticulously researched truth highly, but he has missions, and I don't know that he'd be willing to prioritize journalism over what he believes he has worked out as truth.

(3) Politically, his criticism of Israel is a showstopper in the US.

(4) Stylistically, a little too dry. Though I'd rather read footnoted articles than articles that swing to the sloppiness end of the spectrum.

(5) Listening to him is too depressing, even compared to news. If that infected the news organization, readers would start each day with a renewed sense of dread.

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Yes, the final City Weekly was Sunday, March 29 and is online here.

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Jay Fitzgerald, businss reporter at the Herald tries to make sense of it all:

... After it was first revealed a number of months ago that the Globe was losing $1 million a week, I initially wouldn't/couldn't believe it. I confided to a couple of colleagues and friends it must have been a reference to the loss of value per week, not operating losses. I later learned I was wrong when a reliable source bluntly told me, 'Believe it.' The projected losses are now $1.6 million a week. After concessions, the projected losses are $1.25 million a week. The situation is getting worse, not better. ...

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Even if they get the concessions, that just delays the inevitable. The smart carriage shops changed over to auto repair. The others...

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The Globe was a terrible newspaper 20 years ago, when I lived in pre-Internet-age Boston, and it's only gotten dumber and stranger in the intervening two decades. Someone earlier posted a link to the last City Section column ever to be published. I dare you to read it. Was it written and edited by chatty high school students? RIP, Boston Globe.

Pinch

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