The Boston Globe's Alternative Future

The Boston Globe Guild rejected The New York Times Company’s cutbacks. What the Guild should have done, I say, is reject The New York Times Company’s strategy.

Rather than nickel-and-diming-and-dollaring their way to survival through cutbacks (though I wonder how saving $20 million when you’re losing $85 million can possibly do the job; it’s a Band-Aid on a gushing artery) the Globe should find its alternate future not as a newspaper but as a journalistic service online.

The Guild should have demanded a strategy that transforms the Globe into a smaller but profitable venture that concentrates only on news and serving the community and not on printing and distribution, jettisoning huge costs but coming out with a sustainable plan.

But the union’s not going to think that way any more than management is. They are, as this process all too painfully demonstrates, retrenched in their past, in their long-held definitions of their business and themselves.

So the possible futures do not look good: The Globe could die soon. The losses at the Globe could bring down The New York Times. Someone else could come in town imminently and create that nimble new news organization and kill the Globe.

Comments

[Geil:]

The Globe will not bring down NYT since the company could ultimately give away the Globe. As for eliminating printing and distribution, most of the advertising dollars come from print ad sales. And if someone hasn't yet created the "nimble new news organization", what makes it imminently on the horizon? Somebody has to pay for professional newsgathering and the online community hasn't figured this out yet.

Jun 09 08:49 AM

[Jeff Jarvis:]

Can't necessarily give it away. There are huge shutdown costs. When Tribune company "sold" the NY Daily News to Robert Maxwell, Tribune paid Maxwell $60 million to take if off their hands.

Jun 09 12:36 PM

[User 428740:]

The New York Times wants to sell the New York Times to Boston Area readers. Like Macy's has done with Filene's, NYT believes that Boston is simply part of the Greater New York Area. Losing $1M per week seems like a lot, but that gap could easily be closed with better management, a smaller paper, and harder-hitting news.

Jun 09 06:34 PM

[Danny Newton:]

Hard hitting news does not take sides. Too many people already know what the paper is going to say about something before it comes out.

Jun 10 11:51 AM