NYT chooses John Henry as new owner of Boston Globe

Youkilis vs Wild

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Most of Dorchester is already mid-gentrification to begin with — especially that area. That'd be a fine place for a stadium. But I highly doubt that's the plan here.
 
Wanted to comment: What a great scoop for Gammons on, what, day three of his new site going live? That's a hell of a way to establish a new site fast.
 

TheYaz67

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Hmmm.... apparently:
 
 
the sale also includes The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, for which the Times paid an additional $295 million 14 years ago.
 
What a deal! 
 
Hilarious that the Columbia Journalism School still charges $85K per year in tuition.....
 

Youkilis vs Wild

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the1andonly3003 said:
well, Jeff Bezos and John Henry are in the same class right now:
 
legacy newspapers as toys for billionaires
I come down on the side that this is a very good thing for newspapers. Certainly better to have someone at the top who sees it as a science project than somebody who's actually trying to make big money running one of these things. But we'll see soon enough.
 

the1andonly3003

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I guess we will start seeing WaPo's tech coverage be more lenient towards Amazon...or the sports writers take it easy on the Seattle teams...?
 

soxhop411

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Could he also have his sights set on buying the LA Times?

“@kenbensinger: John Henry, owner of @RedSox and @BostonGlobe, just spotted touring the @LATimes with his wife in tow. Window shopping?”
https://twitter.com/kenbensinger/status/372082707368394752
 

Harry Hooper

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A guess, but maybe not window shopping as much as fact finding, as in learning how another large city's paper functions?
 

soxhop411

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Perhaps your next paper will be delivered by none other than Dan Shaughnessy

Dozens of reporters and editors at the Globe are planning to pitch in with Sunday's deliveries due to widespread delivery problems for the past week.
Some staffers volunteered to do so, and it "looks like the offer has been accepted," technology reporter Hiawatha Bray told CNNMoney Saturday night.

The details of the plan aren't known yet. But there was a growing email chain on Saturday sorting out the delivery strategy.

"Yes it has come to this," columnist Farah Stockman tweeted, journalists "getting up at 4 am to do what a company evidently can't: deliver the paper."

Assistant metro editor Anica Butler replied, "Actually, I think we're supposed to show up at midnight to get our paper routes!"

Nonetheless, Felicia Gans, a metro reporter, said there were plenty of raised hands: "There are 65+ emails in my Globe inbox from reporters & editors, volunteering to deliver tomorrow's papers. So much love for Boston Globe.”
The Globe itself reported that the trouble started on Monday when the company switched to "a new delivery company."

In a story on Thursday, the paper said "missing papers" across the local area "prompted an outcry from readers, who vented on social media and overwhelmed the Globe's phone system with complaints."

According to Bray, the phone system "crashed" and reporters "found it difficult to call outside the building."

"Many readers got busy signals," she added. "One regular reader of my column managed to get through to me and begged me to do something. I and a bunch of my colleagues contacted our CEO and said that reporters were so concerned about the problem that we'd be willing to help deliver the paper."
http://money.cnn.com/2016/01/02/media/boston-globe-reporters-deliver-sunday/index.html

even though it's impossible to see how something like this could happen today, its nice to see Globe staff volunteering to deliver papers at the crack of dawn..
 

GeorgeCostanza

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I'm my early 20s I had a buddy that delivered Sunday morning Globes. He would get an 8-ball Saturday night and rip through the whole thing on his route by himself. This may help explain the current state of Globe delivery.
 

Jordu

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You can say no one cares about print newspapers any more, but the Globe still sells about 115,000 print copies a day via subscription and 200,000+ on Sundays. Ad revenue from print edition is still a major revenue stream for the Globe, and advertisers must be pissed. They paid for ads in tens of thousands of copies no one saw. They will be demanding significant refunds.

The Globe canned its distribution company and all of the drivers who worked for that company. They hired a new distribution company but didn't bother to wait to see how many drivers would agree to work for the new company. Now, a week later, they still have unstaffed delivery routes in 100+ ZIP codes.

Awe-inspiring stupidity from the business side at the Globe.
 

Harry Hooper

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Will they be issued t-shirts reading "I'm the Ace Delivery Person"?
 

lexrageorge

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You can say no one cares about print newspapers any more, but the Globe still sells about 115,000 print copies a day via subscription and 200,000+ on Sundays. Ad revenue from print edition is still a major revenue stream for the Globe, and advertisers must be pissed. They paid for ads in tens of thousands of copies no one saw. They will be demanding significant refunds.

The Globe canned its distribution company and all of the drivers who worked for that company. They hired a new distribution company but didn't bother to wait to see how many drivers would agree to work for the new company. Now, a week later, they still have unstaffed delivery routes in 100+ ZIP codes.

Awe-inspiring stupidity from the business side at the Globe.
You have the bolded backwards. I received a note from my former delivery person, thanking me for being a customer while also stating that he was not going to be hired by the new delivery company. There was an article in today's Globe, during which it was implied that many of the prior delivery persons were not offered jobs by the new distribution company.

Massive unforced error by Henry and The Glebe that I hope hurts them mightily in the short and long term.
 

8slim

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Read a piece about this last night. Sounded like The Globe wanted to stop working with the previous distribution company because their service was terrible and complaints were constant. The new outfit has a much better reputation, but reportedly warned The Globe that it would take them a while to staff up enough to handle the existing volume. Basically told them straight out that they'd experience short term pain for long term gain. And that's exactly what's happening.
 

John Marzano Olympic Hero

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It's almost 4:00 on Monday afternoon and I still haven't seen my Sunday Globe.

HOW AM I TO KNOW WHAT IS SIZZLING ON THE BASEBALL HOT STOVE WITHOUT NICK CAFARDO? HOW AM I TO SHAKE MY HEAD AND SMILE AT LIFE'S FOIBLES WITHOUT LYNN JOHNSTON TELLING ME WHAT TO LOOK FOR?

And what about Globe Cupid? How am I supposed to begin my work week wondering if a Boston couple found love?*

* There's no sarcasm in this, I really enjoy reading Globe Cupid every week and save it for last.
 

geoflin

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I got a note from my delivery person saying he hoped to be hired by the new company. Evidently he wasn't, or wasn't given the same route. He always put the paper inside my front door for which I tipped him extra. This week at least I have gotten the paper but it has been thrown anywhere and everywhere.
 

axx

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Guess JWH didn't want to shut down the Globe lest it hurt the chances of getting the condos built. So he's going to kill it organically?
 

Lose Remerswaal

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Hiring ACI to replace a successful, reliable long time delivery company is like replacing Jon Lester with Wade Miley and Justin Masterson. As with the Red Sox, I expect Mr. Henry will reconsider his "rules of delivery" and will find a David Price to get papers to all subscribers. We may have to "wait 'til next year", but help will come.
 

David Laurila

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I've received one paper, the Sunday, in nine days since the change. The quality of service under the previous company had clearly declined in recent years, but by comparison they were exemplary. This is a fiasco.
 

Curll

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I've received one paper, the Sunday, in nine days since the change. The quality of service under the previous company had clearly declined in recent years, but by comparison they were exemplary. This is a fiasco.
I'm not a subscriber, but I have a paper in front of my door at least once a week. Random days, usually.

No idea if it is a "free sample" deal, or if the Globe just likes me? I used to just leave them be, figured they were for a neighbor. But, nope. No one claimed them.
 

Billy Jo Robidoux

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My parents still have the Globe delivered. For the last five days they've been getting two copies of the paper, one on either end of their front porch. Dafuq?
 

Jordu

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The McGrory memo is a bizarre string of vague but menacing corporate cliches. Globe management really has no clue what to do next. Losing McGrory would be a useful start. John Henry needs a new management team, and he needs it fast.

Marty Baron faced two huge challenges in his years at the Globe: manage decline by making the least harmful cuts, and build a sustainable digital presence. He did both exceptionally well.

Then he left, and the McGrory team gave away Boston.com to the business side, created narrowly targeted verticals that lost money (the whole point of a narrow vertical is to make money), snobbishly ignored the obvious Globe/NECN pair-up (the ad dollars are in TV), let Metro and State House coverage wither, and spent its time tinkering with the design of the print edition instead of beefing up BostonGlobe.com's offerings.
 

mauf

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Globe's issues getting worse: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/04/the-boston-globe-facing-irreversible-revenue-declines-is-launching-a-reinvention-initiative/

Bonus: The Dorchester land is also apparently too polluted to build housing on.
Are the issues really getting worse, or is McGrory actually providing leadership and trying to remake the Globe on a sustainable (albeit smaller) base, rather than merely harvesting the business, which seems like what most local and regional papers are doing.

Edit: Jordu's take is interesting. Maybe McGrory is the wrong man for the job. I'm just saying that a more radical approach doesn't necessarily indicate worsening problems.
 

Spelunker

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The McGrory memo is a bizarre string of vague but menacing corporate cliches. Globe management really has no clue what to do next. Losing McGrory would be a useful start. John Henry needs a new management team, and he needs it fast.

Marty Baron faced two huge challenges in his years at the Globe: manage decline by making the least harmful cuts, and build a sustainable digital presence. He did both exceptionally well.

Then he left, and the McGrory team gave away Boston.com to the business side, created narrowly targeted verticals that lost money (the whole point of a narrow vertical is to make money), snobbishly ignored the obvious Globe/NECN pair-up (the ad dollars are in TV), let Metro and State House coverage wither, and spent its time tinkering with the design of the print edition instead of beefing up BostonGlobe.com's offerings.
The most interesting part to me is Boston.com. For maybe five years that was my homepage, and the default first place I would go when I pulled up a browser. Likely much longer now that I think of it. It's disturbing how fast that fell apart, and I never really tied that back to Baron leaving. In my head, though, it was well before '12.
 

JimBoSox9

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The McGrory memo is a bizarre string of vague but menacing corporate cliches. Globe management really has no clue what to do next. Losing McGrory would be a useful start. John Henry needs a new management team, and he needs it fast.

Marty Baron faced two huge challenges in his years at the Globe: manage decline by making the least harmful cuts, and build a sustainable digital presence. He did both exceptionally well.

Then he left, and the McGrory team gave away Boston.com to the business side, created narrowly targeted verticals that lost money (the whole point of a narrow vertical is to make money), snobbishly ignored the obvious Globe/NECN pair-up (the ad dollars are in TV), let Metro and State House coverage wither, and spent its time tinkering with the design of the print edition instead of beefing up BostonGlobe.com's offerings.
I don't hate the memo as much as you did. I've read worse, at least. Mentality-wise there are things to like about where he's coming from. However, your analysis of what's happened since McGrory came on is spot-on and the reality really is that bad. The last couple years they've really made the worst of a bad situation.