Boston Globe might shut down
According to the AP Wire/Nashua Telegraph, the Boston Globe, which was bought by the New York Times in 1993, is collapsing along with its owner:
NEW YORK – When it bought the Boston Globe for a record $1.1 billion in 1993, the New York Times Co. added one of the nation's most acclaimed and profitable newspapers to its empire.If the Boston Globe does go under, that too will be just as well, because, as I've come to realize all these years, they another in a sea of propagandists, and haven't been serving the better interests of Massechussettes at all. They won't be missed.
But analysts say the 137-year-old Globe has been a money loser since, and the Times, now $1.1 billion in debt, is threatening to shut down Boston's pre-eminent paper unless it gets $20 million in union concessions.
Faced with the global recession and declining revenues, the newspaper business is reeling – one major paper has already folded this year and several others are seeking bankruptcy protection. But the threat to the Globe, announced Friday on the Globe's Web site, has shocked some industry insiders, who say it shows no one is safe.
"It is a huge warning shot across the bow of the newspaper industry. If this can happen to the storied Boston Globe, pretty much nothing is safe," said Boston University communications professor Tobe Berkovitz.
Of the major dailies that have gone down, none has the cachet of the Globe, he said.
The threat to close the paper "sends a very clear message to all employees and unions of surviving newspapers that this is not business as usual," said Ken Doctor, a media analyst with the research firm Outsell. "This is uncharted territory."
Labels: msm foulness, United States
