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What's the status of the newspaper industry in Boston?
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Boston Globe offices in Dorchester, AP Photo/Charles Krupa
The declining economy is not really news to anyone at this point, unless of course you have managed to ignore the news since last September.
One of the consequences of the acceleration of the recession has been that many businesses and industries have begun to feel the financial pressure.
One industry that is especially feeling the pinch is the newspaper industry. In the past year big papers all over the country have begun folding such as the Rocky Mountain News from Denver or the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Part of the problem has been the natural migration to free online news, but the economic situation has highlighted the problems a lot of papers are having.
What does this mean for Boston?
Recently there have been a lot of rumors that the Boston Globe would also either close up shop or be sold by its owners at the New York Times.
The Globe has been losing money for awhile and there have been ongoing negotiations with the unions to try to obtain an additional $20 million in concessions. As of right now, these concessions are awaiting approval by the union members. A recent report on the Globe website, boston.com, claims that financial analysts had this very discussion with the NY Times and they actually don't plan to sell the paper or close it down.
If the Boston Globe were to close, it would leave Boston with the Boston Herald, along with free publications the Boston Phoenix and the Boston Metro. I personally really enjoy the Phoenix as it has really good writing and is usually full of fun places to go and stuff to do, such as shows and restaurants.
The Boston Metro claims to be Boston's largest newspaper and recently it has also been in the news as Metro International, the owner of the US-based Metro dailies in Boston, New York and Philadelphia, agreed to sell them to Seabay Media, a company owned by Pelle Tornberg former Metro CEO.
It would appear that the fate of Boston-based newspapers are up in the air, with the impending sales decisions and cutback but for now we still have all of our newspapers.
Eventually these papers may try to take the ill-fated NY Times online route of the past, when it tried to unsuccessfully charge for newspaper content.
It would seem that discerning readers have realized you can get quality content online for free!
For more information regarding the analyst discussion with the New York Times, go to: http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2009/05/15/analyst_times_co_may_not_sell_globe/
If you liked this article, you may also enjoy: When will the MA recession end?
Thanks for reading!
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