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The Atlantic reports of the woes of the New York Times (and how that affects the Boston Globe)
By ShadyMilkMan on Mon, 01/12/2009 - 12:30pm
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200901/new-york-times
...It could sell The Boston Globe-or shutter it entirely, given what the company itself has acknowledged is a challenging time for the sale of media properties. It could sell its share in the Boston Red Sox, close or sell various smaller properties, or off-load About.com, the resolutely unglamorous Web purchase that has been virtually the only source of earnings growth in the Times Company's portfolio. With these steps, or after them, would come mass staffing cuts, no matter that the executive editor, Bill Keller, promised otherwise...
What would Boston look like if our daily newspaper option was the Boston Herald? What if the Boston Phoenix was the best source of news in the city? I guess the folks over in Newton would be spared having to share their content with Boston.com as well. Speaking of, Boston.com as a name must be worth quite a bit, how much would it be worth and who would be willing to pay for it?
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Comments
I'll chip in..
.. a dollar or two if adamg puts in a bid for the domain name. That'd be cool.
I wonder if the Globe goes down if there would be a bidding war for boston.com. I shudder to think of a domain squatter nabbing it and then trying to auction it for more. Although BG Electronic Publishing has the domain registered thru June 2012, so I hope we don't have to worry about that.
the boston.com domain is worth:
According to these silly little "what is my domain worth" sites, the boston.com url is worth $16,076,800. I really doubt their pricing algorithm is designed for domains of that scale. (short dictionary word. Lots of existing links to it, etc.)
Since they had to buy the domain from Au Bon Pain when they started in 1995, I'm sure they have it on their balance sheet still. Probably at an appropriately appraised price. Just think about how much that asset's value must be offsetting other parts of their balance sheet.
Pizza.com went for over a
Pizza.com went for over a million dollars. I doubt Boston is worth as much as pizza.
Boston Herald is barely a newspaper anymore
It has some useful content, and sometimes reports stories earlier and better than the Globe, but it is in no way a complete newspaper -- more like a useful supplement to a real newspaper. And they've cut their staff to the bone, too, leaving their long-term future in doubt.
In fact, the Herald will
In fact, the Herald will outlast the Globe. The Herald is in much better shape.
The big difference is that
The big difference is that the threat to the Boston Globe could be tied to the New York Times and their vast empire. So even if the Globe were to stablize itself it could still go under if the NYT decides that selling it off or closing shop would help the NYT survive an extra day. Also if it began to look like the Globe was closing and the Herald started having issues Im sure the same thing would be happening all over and the government would relax some of the rules on media ownership and you could see the return of Murdoch and company as well (who currently can not own the Herald , as he once did, due to these media holding rules.)
Also Ive noticed tons of stores closing recently, and many of them are chain stores. Most of the lower level discount stores that are not part of the chains (the ones that made it to 2008/2009) seem to be keeping above water during this crisis. We cant forget that the Herald is the independant discount store of the Boston newspaper world.
re: The Atlantic reports of the woes of the New York Times (and
"What if the Boston Phoenix was the best source of news in the city?"
What kind of comment is that?? Just because you're over 40 doesn't mean that your traditional methods of acquiring the news are the "best". Conversely, the i-report from CNN, geared heavily towards the user-generated stupidity of i-journalism, is also not the "best."
Some of the best news/journalism in Boston can be found today not just in one medium or media company, but within many, and instead of thinking in terms of one source...well, you get the picture, Shady, or at least, you can read about it in the Times tomorrow if not. It'll be in the obit section.
IM in my late 20's and wont
IM in my late 20's and wont be over 40 until the 2020's at which point paper in any form wont even exist anymore ;)
Maybe the Metro will start
Maybe the Metro will start publishing on sundays?
Metro?
With full-color funnies, I hope!
Does Boston need the Globe???
I never thought I'd find myself asking that question, but it's no longer over the top.
Frankly, between the ubiquity of the Internet and the widespread availability of the Times and Wash. Post via hard copy and online, there's really no need for the Globe to continue its national and international coverage. Its local news coverage hasn't wowed anyone for a long time. Its columnists have become very hit or miss -- and not infrequently outdone by online commentary. Its op-ed page and Sunday Ideas section, while not devoid of interesting pieces, lack diverse voices and often publish a ton of academics and prominents who probably don't give a rat's ass about anything else that appears in the paper.
I think Boston needs a mightily revamped, rethought version of the Globe, but I have increasing doubts that the paper is capable of remaking itself.
The Boston Globe's national and international news coverage
The Globe shut down their international bureau and their Washington bureau a couple of years ago, so they have pretty much dropped out of the contest of national and international coverage. If they are mostly trying to do local coverage, and it still isn't wowing you, then there probably won't be anything that would.
Boston without the Globe
would also be Boston without Boston.com. Where would we get news about the recent fire engine crash, for instance, without that news-gathering organization (whether or not they print on actual dead trees)?
You mention 'the ubiquity of the Internet', but in many cases what this really means is the ubiquity of traditional newspaper content on the Internet.
If the Globe, Herald, and GateHouse disappear, Universal Hub is going to have a lot less stuff to link to.
or its possible that places
or its possible that places liek Universal Hub will get more web traffic, leading to greater internet rev, leading to expansion.
Adam, you want to hire a bunch of reporters?
I don't quite see this site going in that direction, but I'm curious how Adam feels ...
Even if he doesnt someone
Even if he doesnt someone else may. Newspapers are saddled with infrastructure costs, that would be minimal compared to online news sites. Currently online news sites focus on either the banal, or on intensive reporting along with opinion and other pieces. The internet has also resulted in many places doing secondary research on the primary research produced by the newspapers and others. If those newspapers were to fold there would be a void, and someone would need to do the primary research, and report the regular news of the day.
Its not that people dont want the news, its that they dont want to be stuck with a newspaper.
But who will pay for this?
Online advertising revenue doesn't seem to be anything close to what is needed to maintain a professional news-gathering operation. Almost every attempt to charge people for reading newspapers online has failed.
Oh, sure, I'd love to hire some reporters
Alas, my current business model doesn't allow for that :-).
Universal Hub in its present form could survive just on linking to what other bloggers are writing about - Boston is blessed with a large number of interesting bloggers who write really well. In fact, I originally started UH (and its predecessor) just to link to bloggers. I'm looking at ways of extending that.
But you really still need fulltime journalists to give you a complete picture of what's going on here (think church scandal, the more recent Spotlight reports on Partners Healthcare or Sox games on the Coast).
People still want news, and they want to discuss it, so I'm optimistic that journalism, somehow, will survive. Whether paper-bound institutions such as the Globe and Herald survive, however, is another matter.
agree--we need the Globe, but...
I agree that the disappearance of the dailies would have a devastating effect on public awareness of the news. Could the Globe and/or Herald survive as freely accessible Internet papers? I dunno -- mostly because I'm not well informed about how one could run an economically viable (i.e., with decently paid professional reporters) daily newspaper that way.
The Christian Science Monitor, which has been struggling for years, announced they're going to an online daily + weekly print edition format. That may be the future for the city-based dailies.
Or.......a hybrid. A thinner daily somewhere between the Metro/Boston Now-type freebie and the current multi-section paper, with a big weekend edition, and tons of more depthful online content.
My favorite-ever newspaper was New York Newsday, a full-blown NYC edition of the paper that published during the mid-80s through early 90s. (Now the Long Island Newsday has a New York edition, but it's not even close.) New York Newsday had great local coverage, columnists who knew the city and wrote thought provoking stuff, and excellent features and investigative pieces -- with enough nat'l and int'l coverage (mostly wire service, true) to keep you in the know. It also was a tabloid instead of a broadsheet, which made it a much easier read on the subway. Most days, I didn't even bother with the Times.
Maybe that's what the Globe could morph into, with great homage to the Internet age, and with sharp local coverage that is aimed at metro Boston but not ignoring the rest of the world.
Just thinkin' out loud here.
I find that I go to the
I find that I go to the Boston Globe and Herald when I want news about Boston but tend to migrate to national media when I want national news. I think the Herald has a better chance of surviving in this age because they tend to do more local coverage then the Globe and they tend to have their own take on things mixed in between the sheets where as the Globe is all business (you would never have a side by side comparison of NY celebs and Boston celebs in the pages of the Globe, with full blown cartoon representations.)
This just in: Major broadsheet to become tabloid
Chicago Tribune repackaging itself in tabloid size for street sales.
What's weird is that they'll be staying a broadsheet for home delivery. Seems like that would wind up costing them more; why not just bite the bullet and go to a single size for all copies?
The word tabloid conjurs up
The word tabloid conjurs up all sorts of negative feelings though. Maybe they are afraid that the learned people of Chicago, I'll wait while the room quiets down, will be upset if their Tirbune shows up at the doorstep as a tabloid format.
I personally think it would do wonders for the Globe to be readable anywhere besides your kitchen table or desk. Broadsheet just is not an ideal format, even in an easy cheer smoking your cigar with your feet up on a Sunday night while the kids watch the teevee, its too hard to keep straight and as budgets get cut and the actual pages get thinner it becomes very difficult to even see the words if you have a lamp at a weird angle.