Greg Reibman tweets he was in Sugar in West Roxbury while a Globe reporter was doing a man-in-the-street interview about what people think about Menino (because, apparently, last month's results weren't enough):
I decided to be nice and passed.
Which is probably just as well, since a) Reibman lives in Newton and b) He's publisher of GateHouse Media New England's Boston-area newspapers.
You may recall how Kat Powers pleaded with Deval Patrick's schedulers to get him to meet with GateHouse reporters before she had her baby in March. They delivered.
Please, Mr. Patrick, get your schedulers to get on the ball so you can see the reporters and editors at GateHouse New England before March 9:
Alleges copyright infringement for posting whole copies of articles from GateHouse sites.
Dan Kennedy posts a memo from GateHouse Media New England CEO Rick Daniels announcing the end of cuts put into place over the summer:
... We are in a position to restore the cuts because GHMNE is again generating sufficient cash flows to be clearly and safely in the black. ...
However, he cautioned the chain is not out of the woods yet because the economy continues to suck.
The Globe reports the Dedham newspaper is going from five days a week to one in October.
Dan Kennedy reports the suburban media chain is cutting staff salaries by an average of 7.75% (with the cuts increasing up the corporate ladder) and dramatically reducing the number of towns the Quincy Patriot-Ledger covers (including Plymouth where, ironically, the chain's Wicked Local strategy was born).
The Somerville Journal accuses the Somerville News of plagiarism. And the News wonders just how low the Journal can get - in a comment on the Journal post.
Dan Kennedy provides initial sketchy reports, including the end of free obits - and the people who used to typeset them.
Chad Finn reports among those let go: Longtime MetroWest Daily News sportswriter Lenny Megliola.
Dan Kennedy posts a memo from GateHouse New England Rick Daniels to his troops: On the one hand, GateHouse will fight, fight fight; on the other hand, GateHouse has seen its revenue plunge as well.
Rekha6 gets pulled into an infinite vortex of frustration when trying to get a new password to comment on a Wicked Local story about T fare increases.
Howard Owens, no longer GateHouse Media's online strategist, explains why GateHouse felt it had to sue the Times over boston.com's Your Town sites.
Dan Kennedy gets the scoop: Howard Owens, who built the chain's Wicked Local Web presence, has left the virtual building.
If you publicly refer to a Globe reporter's story as the sort of crap that would entitle one of your own readers to kick your sorry behind, don't be surprised if the Globe reporter fires back (click for the media insults, but stay for Geoff Edgers's mea culpa on the second half of the story).
UPDATE: Thanks to Ron Newman, there are now plenty of details, in the comments.
But other than that, we have no details on the GateHouse link suit, which was due to go to trial today.
If true, then I'll stop my own personal embargo on links to GateHouse articles.
Order dismissing the case, which, like the Globe story, has no details.
Dan Kennedy posts a copy of the Times' 100-page answer to the GateHouse link lawsuit, explains why both sides are wrong and should settle before they both manage to break the Internet.
Randy Turner reports that new GateHouse Media president Kirk Davis, formerly of the Massachusetts GateHouses, will earn $461,260.80 this year - way more than the guy he replaced at the helm of a company with stock now going for about 7 cents a share. And yet, that's nothing: You should see what the company CEO earns.
Via Dan Kennedy, who writes:
... I think Davis is fundamentally a good guy, and that GateHouse can only benefit from having him run its day-to-day operations. But this is terrible symbolism.
Earlier:
GateHouse stops 401(k) contributions.
But this time, it's somebody who's posting strictly original news and content.
Brian Keaney today launched MyDedhamNews.com, which will feature local news, photos, videos and podcasts for and about Dedham.
Compare with ParkwayBoston, a similar independent site for West Roxbury and Roslindale.
Company CEO delivered the news yesterday - no more contributions until the economy gets better.
Chuck Tanowitz, who lives and blogs in Newton and who does public relations and marketing for a living, considers the Gatehouse-vs-Globe issue, concludes there's less to the Globe's efforts than meet the eye and that what's at issue is really GateHouse's survival under an attack from an organization using its own content against it.
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