Boston Globe on brink of closure

Globe did have a finalist in the arts criticism category, however (Sebastian Smee).
 
Is it true that a Pulitzer Prize and two bucks gets you a ride on the T?
 
Winning a Pulitzer allows you to write something like this.

And I think we can all agree that the world is a better place for it. :D
 
That was the best review I've ever read!

And it didn't appear in a newspaper.

We don't need newspapers, do we?
 
^^ Newspapers haven't really figured out how to get a revenue stream from on line content.

Most of their revenue still comes from subscriptions, boxes and print ads. Most of the on-line stuff is still 'value-added' stuff. The dead tree stuff still pays Ebert's salary (for now).

They have tried charging for online content, but there were not enough people willing to pay for what they could get for free elsewhere. (I disagree with those people, but I'll admit I'm in the minority).

Ebert is pretty much part of the last generation of journalist writers. There will be no one left to pay for the next generation. :(
 
A rep. from the Boston Globe ad sales department recently said something to me that really stuck with me.... When I told her that I had advised my client to work with a well-known real estate advertising agency, she looked disgusted and said "but that's the advertising agency that tells their clients not to do any advertising!"

This is one of the best, brightest agencies for real estate marketing, and its quite telling that they generally don't recommend newspaper advertising anymore - except in rare circumstances.

The money has moved into the splintered world of web media where every site will jockey and cut prices to get the revenue - and all ad behavior can be tracked.

Here's another 2009 scenario: A ten-story, temporary wall scrim hanging/billboard costs about the same as two Sundays in the Boston Globe. A Globe ad may indirectly drive a small handful of consumers to the site, but you really need to be in there for a couple of months to get full brand awareness. The wall scrim directly generates 25-40% of the entire property's direct sales leads. And it costs the same as two full color ads.

The newspaper model is just so dead on so many levels.
 
A ten-story, temporary wall scrim hanging/billboard costs about the same as two Sundays in the Boston Globe.
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An idea for Province Street?
 
and all ad behavior can be tracked.
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I have a friend who works in the Sun-Times organization (he is a reporter for one of their suburban papers). He has told me the problem they are having is opposite. Most of their ad revenue comes from local shops, restaurants and establishments. Most of them won't buy online ads because they don't know exactly where the ad views are coming from. With the print product the paper can tell them that x number of papers were sold within x miles of your store. They can't do that with online ads. And since fewer and fewer people are buying the print product...
The newspaper model is just so dead on so many levels.
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:(
 
Would be a perfect spot, and could be changed seasonally. The worst part of that building becomes it's identifying and beloved feature. Voila!

The Hotel Indigo in Newton tried to do this on their ugly, blank wall but the ugly, blank neighbors complained.

Is it art or is advertising? I'm on the fence, to be honest. But I do think it's better than the ugly brown brick wall.

Photo1.jpg
 
For a closer example, look at the huge FP3 sign.
 
Sen. Kerry is convening a hearing in a couple weeks to consider a law to allow newspapers to reorganize as 501(c)(3) nonprofits. The only tradeoff would be that they could no longer make political endorsements.
 
If newspapers still aren't making money tax exempt status isn't going to help out very much. I also don't think it would be ethical for shareholders to be collecting any profits, should they ever exist again, from a tax exempt entity. Given that tax exempt organizations are required to reinvest all monies into running their organizations rather than dispense payments to investors.
 
Actually, beyond the internet, newspapers being taken over by conglomerates that care more about profit than product has been one of the industry's biggest problems. A lot of papers were gutted of good content in this way well before they faced competition online. Reorganization might help at least a little - although it could be too little, too late.

The shareholders would be wiped out anyway if newspapers were allowed to die.
 
The St. Petersburg Times, which won two Pulitzers this week, seems to be doing just fine as a non-profit. It has long been one of the nation's best regional newspapers.
 
Henry eyes Globe in deal for NYT's Sox stake

By Ben Klayman

CHICAGO, April 28 (Reuters) - Hedge fund manager John Henry is looking at taking control of the money-losing Boston Globe newspaper as part of a deal to buy New York Times Co's (NYT.N: Quote, Profile, Research) stake in the Boston Red Sox baseball team, a source familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

The Times put its 17.75 percent stake in New England Sports Ventures (NESV), which owns the Red Sox, their home field of Fenway Park and adjacent real estate, up for sale in January.

A spokeswoman for Henry, who led the group that bought the NESV assets in 2002 for $700 million including debt, referred questions to the Red Sox. Spokeswomen for the team and the Times declined to comment.

The Times acquired its stake in the ownership group at that time for an estimated $75 million. The Red Sox have won two World Series titles since then.

NESV also includes half of the Roush Fenway Racing NASCAR team and an 80 percent stake in the NESN regional sports cable TV network.

Before the markets deteriorated last year, analysts and bankers had estimated the Times stake could be worth up to $200 million. A Barclays Capital analyst last year valued it at about $166 million.

However, the stake's lack of voting rights and Henry's ability to control who buys it likely makes it far less valuable, analysts have said. Tight credit makes the possible list of buyers even shorter.

The U.S. newspaper industry has been losing readers and advertisers as more people get news online, forcing publishers to cut budgets and jobs and to sell assets.

The Times said in January that the Red Sox sale did not include the possibility of selling the Globe, which the Times bought for more than $1 billion in the 1990s.

The Times has threatened to shut the Globe unless the newspapers' unions agree to $20 million in concessions, the Globe reported earlier this month.
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http://uk.reuters.com/article/marketsNewsUS/idUKN2854670520090428?pageNumber=2
 
statler said:
A point in Pelham's favor.

(Don't say I never gave you anything. :))
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Haha, Statler, I owe you a drink!

The Boston Globe, Tawdry Journalistic Failure:
50 person rally to raise taxes - big local coverage with a dedicated local reporters, including a photo (precious real estate in the PR world)

2,000 person rally to cut spending - the Globe picked up Tennessee-based AP wire report, ignoring the goings-on within the city of Boston.

It doesn't get much more black and white than that.

Nowhere in the "raise taxes" article did it disparage these protesters or paint them as kooks or yahoos. Having personally dealt with one of those non-profits, I know how easy that would have been.

And nowhere does it explain why public school students were used as props and stooges in this theater, when they should have been in school. I would hope the teachers that orchestrated that aspect of the stunt lose their jobs without delay.
 
Wow, that Weekly Dig article is some of the best print journalism I've seen in quite some time in this city. Very surprising!

But that article was all I was asking for when I picked up the Globe on April 16th - a little synopsis of this huge 2,000 person rally, who was there, what went on, and what it all meant.

There just isn't a need for the Globe anymore.
 
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