Media Watch

Local weekly owner cuts salaries 7.5%,10.5% of workforce let go

GateHouse announces pay cuts at Mass. newspapers
Chain includes 8 Cape and Islands weeklies

by Dan Kennedy, Medianation.

GateHouse email to employees
A MESSAGE FROM RICK DANIELS, CEO/PRESIDENT GHMNE

As we all know too well, the road out of the horrendous economic and advertising slump has been extremely difficult, and yet we have a lot to be proud of on how we have responded. We are still bringing valuable and unique local news, information and advertising to our huge print and digital audiences. Together, we have taken many tough actions that have preserved - and often enhanced - our capabilities, while substantially decreasing GHMNE's structural costs.
   Regrettably, we need to share some tough news: Beginning June 1, we will implement a temporary reduction of our salaries and wages. The average GateHouse Massachusetts employee will see a reduction of about 7.75%. If this were to last through the remainder of 2009, the effect would be to reduce 2009 salaries by about 4% - given it is not starting until June. Rates will vary, and will be "progressive" - meaning that higher earnings will be reduced at higher rates. Your supervisor will share your amount with you. All publications and units in Massachusetts are affected by this step. We are sitting down - today - with representatives of our unionized colleagues to start negotiations on this issue. We expect participation from all - fully and soon.
   Why are we taking this step? Why now? It's really pretty simple: As much as we have done everything in our collective power to blunt the negative effects the economic crisis has had on advertising, virtually ALL major metropolitan markets have been hit by advertising declines that have soared to the mid-twenties to mid-thirties percent (compared to prior year months) since early January. These revenue declines have dramatically hit the cash flows of most publishers.
We are NOT - thankfully - in the kind of trouble that we never want to be in - producing lots of red ink, HOWEVER, if we don't act soon, and decisively, we could see advertising trends reduce our revenues to a point where we could no longer cover our cash expenses with any margin of safety. Common sense tells us that when companies start suffering from negative cash flow, there is NOTHING good that happens, and these days, with lenders and vendors on short strings themselves, the "bad stuff" happens quickly. We seriously considered a wage reduction earlier this year, but given the obvious difficulties a pay cut creates for each of our family's finances, we decided to make sure we were not going to see an advertising rebound that could allow us to avoid this painful step. We also considered the possible use of additional staff reductions to generate the almost $2.5 Million of savings this pay cut will generate for the remainder of 2009. Such cuts would have to be about 100 positions, and we did not believe we could continue to operate and deliver the high levels customers value were we to quickly cut this many positions.
   We are hardly alone in taking this step. In fact, a great many publishing companies have already taken steps to reduce their single biggest expense - compensation, using furloughs, pay cuts, or even both. While we might be a bit "late" vs. our peers, it's not too late for us given the many aggressive cost reductions we have already made. At this point, GateHouse Massachusetts is the only GateHouse region that is implementing pay reductions, because we, being in a major metro market, have seen substantially greater losses in advertising expenditures. Because no one can predict the economic future, we can't reasonably predict when revenues and cash flows will strengthen to the point where there is little concern about cash flows being stable and safe (i.e. positive) levels. Obviously, the sooner we can end this temporary reduction, the better - for all.
   Some might ask: Aren't newspapers dead anyway? Are we just prolonging the inevitable? As a consumer and advertising medium, newspapers that deliver truly unique news and information are still very much in demand, although some very important parts of the business model, including the need to be fluently digital, are changing. One of the largest advertising agencies in the country visited us recently with a very simple message: Large local newspaper companies, with some changes, will be the major beneficiaries of the newspaper industry restructuring. Our industry IS going through wrenching changes, but a great many of the changes that are bedeviling major Metro papers are poised to benefit us - as long as we remain economically sound in the near term. We will keep you informed about our challenges, AND our victories.
   The senior management team and I will be conducting employee information sessions at a great many of our locations in early to mid June, we look forward to updating you further at these meetings. Thank you - in advance - for your willingness to support personally difficult steps during these times that WILL allow us to grab the opportunities that arise out of adversity.
Richard Daniels
President and Chief Executive Officer
GateHouse Media New England
Publisher, The Patriot Ledger and the Enterprise

The Boston Globe isn't the only newspaper in Massachusetts fighting for its economic survival. Earlier today, GateHouse Media New England, which publishes more than 100 community newspapers in Eastern Massachusetts, announced a "temporary" pay cut.

According to an account by Jon Chesto in the Patriot Ledger of Quincy, a GateHouse paper, salaries will be reduced by an average of 7.75 percent, with the lowest-paid employees receiving a 7 percent cut and the highest-paid getting whacked by as much as 15 percent.

The goal is to save $2.5 million this year. The pay cuts would be reversed if and when the recession-battered advertising market recovers.

100 workers lose jobs

In addition, we learn from Chesto's story that GateHouse has reduced its full-time workforce in Massachusetts by about 10.5 percent since the beginning of the year, and currently employs about 1,100.

(NOTE: GateHouse's Cape Cod weeklies only lost two positions which comes to 3.6% of its 55 employees.)

In a company-wide e-mail, a copy of which I obtained shortly after it was sent out and it reprinted on theright, GateHouse Media New England president and chief executive Rick Daniels explains what's behind the pay reductions:

Why are we taking this step? Why now? It's really pretty simple: As much as we have done everything in our collective power to blunt the negative effects the economic crisis has had on advertising, virtually ALL major metropolitan markets have been hit by advertising declines that have soared to the mid-twenties to mid-thirties percent (compared to prior year months) since early January. These revenue declines have dramatically hit the cash flows of most publishers.

The pay cuts will take effect next week except at three unionized papers, where GateHouse executives will seek to negotiate reductions: the Ledger, the Enterprise of Brockton and the Herald News of Fall River.

In a telephone interview after the cuts were announced, Daniels told me that - barring an unexpected further deterioration in the economy - he doesn't expect any further dramatic cuts.

"Anything else we would do would be more in the manner of pruning and trimming," he said. He would not, however, rule out cutting back on the publication frequency of some papers or even closing a few, noting that there are regions that are served by multiple GateHouse papers. The company has closed a handful of papers over the past year.

And though Daniels declined to predict when GateHouse would be able to reverse the pay cuts, he said he hopes to be able to evaluate at the end of 2009 when he would be able to "mitigate or eliminate" them.

"It's an imposition and a hardship for any long-term employee to say, 'Here's a cut in your pay,'" Daniels said.

GateHouse publishes some of the best-known papers in Massachusetts, including dailies such as the MetroWest Daily News of Framingham as well as the Ledger, the Enterprise and the Herald News. Its larger weeklies include the Cambridge Chronicle, the Somerville Journal and the Newton Tab; smaller papers extend well into the exurbs and on Cape Cod.

The New England unit is part of a national chain of about 400 newspapers based in Fairport, N.Y. Like many newspaper companies, GateHouse is struggling with debt that it took on during more prosperous times. Last fall, its stock price fell to such a low level that it was delisted by the New York Stock Exchange.

In late 2008 I wrote a story for CommonWealth Magazine that examines GateHouse and the future of community journalism in some detail. Beat The Press.

GateHouse newspapers on Cape Cod

The chain is easily the largest in the United States with the lion's share of weeklies here on Cape Cod and the Islands. All except three were once owned by a local Cape Cod publisher.

The weeklies here were mostly spared from the recent lay-offs with only one journalist let go and one advertising sale position not replaced, a 3.6% reduction as compared with the compay-wide cut of 10.5%

Here's the list as of May, 2008:

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Geffen is "seriously interested" in buying the Times - NYT

Is Geffen a source close to Geffen?

Despite falling short in two recent attempts to become a major player in The New York Times Company, David Geffen continues to be seriously interested in buying a sizable piece of the company or taking it over completely, according to people who are very familiar with his thinking, though he is wary of doing anything to antagonize the controlling Sulzberger family... NY Times.

Yesterday the New York Post ran a pretty emphatic item reporting that entertainment mogul David Geffen is not interested in buying the New York Times or a share thereof. The Post's Peter Lauria called the Geffen bubble a "myth," citing "three sources with direct knowledge of the situation."

Today the Times itself comes back with a story claiming that Geffen is "seriously interested" in buying the Times, either in whole or in part. Reporters Richard Pérez-Peña and Michael Cieply one-up the Post, attributing their reporting to "people who are very familiar with his [Geffen's] thinking."

Far from being a throwaway, it's likely that the word "very" was the subject of extensive negotiations between the Times and, uh, one of its sources. Very interesting, I'd say. MediaNation.

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NY Times as non-profit; Online upstarts deliver news without the paper

David Geffen and NY Times

Newsweek's Johnnie L. Roberts reports that David Geffen would turn the New York Times into a non-profit institution if he should succeed in buying the paper. But someone - Roberts, Geffen, the unnamed Geffen "confidante" who's quoted or perhaps all three - doesn't really understand the model.
   The example that's cited is the St. Petersburg Times, which is owned by the non-profit Poynter Institute. But the Times itself is a for-profit organization. If that's what Geffen's really got in mind, then that might be the ideal ownership situation - unlike a true non-profit, the St. Pete Times is free to endorse political candidates, for instance.
   But though the hybrid model eliminates the pressure of quarterly reports and shareholder discontent, a paper such as the St. Pete Times (the New Hampshire Union Leader has a similar ownership arrangement) still needs to break even. In the current economic climate, that's a challenge...
       FT: Geffen eyes New York Times
The Financial Times reports that entertainment mogul David Geffen has set his sights on buying the New York Times. So - would Geffen keep the Boston Globe or spin it off? (Via David Carr)... Medianation.

Online upstarts deliver news without the paper
Super local sites run with tiny staffs, budgets

The front page of a Chicago daily recently headlined these stories: A charter school facing closure, record turnouts for university elections, a poll showing that Chicagoans crave more openness in their government.

It was a pretty robust report, but it wasn't in the Chicago Tribune or Sun-Times, the major papers in town. In fact, it wasn't on paper at all, but in the Chi-Town Daily News, a small but growing online upstart that is trying to succeed with a relentlessly local focus.

"We don't cover state politics or national politics," said Geoff Dougherty, a former Tribune reporter who founded Chi-Town in 2005. "We don't have an auto writer or fashion writer. We cover local public affairs."

With an annual budget of about $500,000, a full-time reporting staff of six, a team of freelancers, and 100 volunteer citizen journalists, the site operates as a nonprofit and draws 65,000 unique visitors a month (by comparison capecodtoday recieved 620,722 unique vistors last month). In comparison, Tribune's website draws 5.7 million so-called uniques a month, according to Nielsen Online.

Small, feisty, hyperlocal, nonprofit - is this a glimpse of the future of city journalism online?... Globe.

 capecodtoday.com webstat for past year

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Newspapers walk the walk while TV doesn't talk the talk

TV news show lost 28% of its audience since 2000: Newspapers lost 17%
But newspapers routinely reported their losses while TV did not

If you are aware that the newspaper business is in peril, it is because the newspaper indistry has been telling you about the problem abetted by its rival television news business.

And if you are not aware that the network TV shows are in far worse sharp, it's because there has been very little reported of that by either TV news or newspapers.

A University of Pennsylvania study released last week revealed the gory facts and as usual, it was the New York Times which reported it in the excerbs below in today's edition:

Few TV Reports on Audience Flight
Newspapers sell fewer copies than they used to, and network television news draws fewer viewers. But as that trend unfolded, newspapers and television gave starkly different accounts, a University of Pennsylvania study released last week shows.

Papers found a lot to report about declining news audiences, while national television news shows had little to say. And though the problems of print and broadcast have been similar in scope, both media dwelled primarily on what was happening to newspapers... In the newspapers, they found 900 articles about the drop in newspaper circulation and 95 about the shrinking audience for the broadcast networks' newscasts. The TV news shows had 38 reports on falling newspaper readership and only 6 about the falling audience for national news broadcasts.

(The broadcast networks' evening news shows have lost audience more rapidly than printed newspapers, to about 23 million people each night now from 32 million in 2000. At the same time, the audience for prime-time cable news has roughly tripled, to about four million. Newspaper sales have dropped to about 47 million a day from 56 million in 2000. NY Times.

Here's the release from Penn:

Looking at print, broadcast and cable news stories over a nine-year span, researchers at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania found there were 900 stories on declining readership that appeared in newspapers, but only 22 stories on declining news viewing that appeared on television.

The team was examining the frequency with which major daily newspapers and national television news networks have covered the decline in their readers and viewers. The results showed that while newspapers do cover the drop in their own readership and the drops in viewership of TV news, national television news outlets have largely ignored the story.

The research team comprised Michael X. Delli Carpini, Ph.D., Professor of Communication and Walter H. Annenberg Dean of the Annenberg School for Communication; and doctoral students Elizabeth Roodhouse, Angela M. Lee, and Olesya Venger.
In their report, "Coverage of the Decline in Newspaper Readership and Television National News: A Preliminary Analysis," they noted that while more analysis is needed, "it is not too great a leap to say that for all intents and purposes national television news has ignored its drop in viewership. Indeed, we found that newspapers were more likely to cover the decline in television news viewing than was television news itself, and that national television news was slightly more likely to cover the decline in newspaper readership than its own audiences."

In the study, the Annenberg team looked at 2,060 news stories about the decline in readership/viewership. These stories appeared in print or aired on broadcast television between January 1, 2000 and March 12, 2009 in the top 25 circulation daily newspapers, including The Philadelphia Inquirer (as reported by Editor & Publisher magazine), plus two wire services (Associated Press and Reuters). Since they were looking at The Philadelphia Inquirer, they added the Philadelphia Daily News to the analysis. The team also selected the national news broadcast of ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, the Fox News Network, CNN and CNBC. They developed search queries that identified relevant articles and news segments in order to select only stories specifically about the decline in readership/viewership. Their sources included LexisNexis, Newsbank, and Factiva.

Here's a link to the full report. The cartoon appeared in the New Yorker on 5/11/09.

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Incredible, non-credible proposal as Globe, Union reach Draconian accord

"What, no sacrifice of first borns? The New York Times' decision to propose a 23 percent wage cut as its 'last, best offer' suggests the Overlords of 8th Avenue are looking for nothing but abject capitulation in its talks with the Boston Newspaper Guild." Massachusetts Liberal.

Boston Globe, newspaper guild reach accord, huge pay cut

Double-barreled threats of a draconian pay cut and unilateral layoffs forced the Boston Globe's largest union to buckle to management demands in a pre-dawn pact that could save the paper for now.
The New York Times [NYT] Co., itself facing a severe financial crisis, had warned the Boston Newspaper Guild in no uncertain terms that it would order a sweeping 23 percent wage cut for all 700-plus Guild members if an agreement was not reached.
There was no word on the major sticking point during marathon negotiations over the last four days - the lifetime job guarantees held by about 190 members of the Guild, which represents editorial and advertising workers. Lifting or modifying those guarantees would leave those staffers vulnerable to layoffs... Herald.

An incredible, non-credible proposal

The New York Times Co. is trying to force a 23 percent pay cut on the Newspaper Guild, which prompts the Outraged Liberal to ask: "What, no sacrifice of first borns?"

That really is one hell of a proposed pay cut. It's hard to know what to make of such a move except to assume that management wants some sort of dramatic end game - a walkout by the Guild, bankruptcy, whatever.

Earlier today the Boston Herald's Jessica Heslam - back from hardship duty - reported that Guild officers have gotten some mighty nice raises the past few years. But though Heslam's enterprise might have sowed some dissension within the ranks at 135 Morrissey Boulevard, Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and company seem intent on keeping Globe staffers united and pissed off.

You may have seen this already, but the Washington Post's newly minted Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, Eugene Robinson, has a smart take on the Globe's woes today. And on and on it goes.

One final thought: Management's latest offer could be thought of more as an opening gambit than a "last, best offer." The 30-day deadline has passed, and the company has now said it will not close the paper until after a federally mandated 60-day warning period has passed - and it hasn't even filed the necessary paperwork for that to happen.

What happens when the Guild say "No"?

What will management do when the Guild says no? Announce that it will close the Globe in two months? Sorry - now that we know the company wasn't serious about closing the paper on Friday, and then on Sunday, that's no longer credible.

Unless you're North Korea, you only get to make threats once. Media Nation.
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NY Times take.Globe take.

Globe management makes "last, best offer"

Negotiations continued Tuesday night at the Boston Globe, and Globe management proposed a 23% pay cut to Boston Newspaper Guild members in order to gain $10 million in concessions from the union to keep the newspaper alive. The New York Times Company threatened to close the Globe if its unions did not make cost saving concessions by May 1, and negotiations continued this weekend past that deadline, ending with a tentative agreement on Sunday night, though management rejected the union's last proposal.

Globe management is calling the pay cuts a "last, best offer." According to the story in the Globe, this move could allow management to declare an impasse and unilaterally impose the cuts, as "labor laws allow companies, under certain legal conditions, to impose the conditions of their last, best offers if an impasse is reached in negotiation."

The Globe also says that declaring an impasse could result in a drawn out court battles and strikes. Boston College law professor Thomas Kohler says, "Going to impasse is a high stakes game because the actual determination of impasse doesn't occur until after the fact. It's very chancy"... Editors Weblog.

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Herald circulation drops 17%, Globe 14%

Globe, Herald report circulation declines
GateHouse Media newspaper circulation down, too

The Globe's daily circulation plunged 13.7 percent to 302,638 copies and Sunday readership dropped 11.3 percent to 466,665, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations figures. The Herald's daily circulation fell at an even greater rate, down 17.4 percent to 150,688 copies, but Sunday readership fell at slower rate, down 9.6 percent to 95,392.

Ledger off 6.2%, Enterprise off 5.5%

Smaller local newspapers owned by GateHouse Media Inc, like the Brockton Enterprise and Quincy Patriot Ledger, suffered smaller declines for the most recent period, the circulation report noted. But both the Enterprise and the Patriot Ledger still reported drops, with the Enterprise down 5.5 percent daily and the Patriot Ledger down 6.2 percent... Globe.

See previous story:
New York Times intends to enforce May 1 deadline on Globe, Newspaper's union reaches out to Pols, Times advertising down 27%  here.

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Times intends to enforce deadline on Globe, Newspaper's union reaches out to Pols, Times down 27%

The deadline for agreement on $20 million in union concession is May 1
Globe union cuts demand firm; executives say they hope to avoid closure

"I do love the Globe. I actually worked there in your pressroom, when I was a college student, for a couple of months... You've got an amazing editor and great colleagues. So none of this has to do with that. OK? It's about finding the model to sustain it."
              - Arthur O. Sulzberger

New York Times Co. chief executive Janet L. Robinson said yesterday that the company intends to enforce the May 1 deadline it has set to receive $20 million in concessions from Boston Globe unions.

"We've talked to them about the May 1 deadline, and I think they know it's the date we need for them to get back to us," Robinson said in an interview with the Globe at the Times Co.'s annual meeting in New York.

Times Co. executives told union leaders at the Globe three weeks ago that the paper would be shut down unless the concessions are agreed to. Yesterday, neither Robinson nor Times Co. chairman Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. would address or elaborate on the possibility of shutting the paper down.
The Globe.
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Globe Rally, Petition Preach
To The Wrong Choir
John Kerry to the rescue

The Boston Newspaper Guild, the Globe's largest labor union, has fashioned a patchwork of responses - from demanding that contract negotiations be held in public sessions, to demanding that the Guild deal directly with potential buyers of the Globe.
Not surprisingly, both demands went over like the metric system.
   So the Guild is taking its case to the public. In addition to Friday's pep rally, the union has launched a "Save The Boston Globe" petition on its website...
   One local luminary already on the bandwagon is Sen. John (Can You Hear Me Now?) Kerry, who has told Globe employees he is committed to their fight and will hold hearings in May on the problems facing the newspaper industry. Presumably, Kerry thinks the government could help in some way... WBUR.

Boston Globe reaches out to politicians
Move raises eyebrows over ethics

The Boston Globe's biggest union and its politically wired public relations firm are putting the arm on politicians and other civic leaders covered by the paper to show up at a "rally" today to spotlight the broadsheet's desperate financial condition, raising concerns about potential conflicts.

• Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino isn't going'
• Gov. Deval Patrick doesn't plan to attend either.
• Sen. Scott Brown (R-Wrentham) called the invitation "unusual".
• City Council President Michael Ross only politician scheduled to speak.
• Senate Minority Leader Richard Tisei (R-Wakefield) said he won't attend.

The Boston Newspaper Guild, whose more than 700 members include reporters and other newsroom employees, organized today's noon rally at Faneuil Hall with the help of the lobbying firm O'Neill and Associates.. Herald.
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NYT Co. 1Q losses worsen as ad sales plunge 27 pct

The New York Times Co. fell into a deeper financial hole during the first quarter as the newspaper publisher's advertising revenue plunged 27 percent in an industrywide slump that is reshaping the print media. Its shares dived after the results were released Tuesday.

The owner of The New York Times, The Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune and 15 other daily newspapers lost $74.5 million, or 52 cents per share, in the opening three months of the year. That compared with a loss of $335,000 at the same time last year, which was break-even on a per-share basis... Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

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Why newspapers can't charge for online content

Why newspapers like the Globe can't charge for online content
There are countless free souces for free news

By Dan Kennedy, Medianation.

With the bottom falling out from the newspaper business, it seems likely that owners are going to take another gamble on charging for online content.

The respected newspaper consultant John Morton practically insists on it in the American Journalism Review. Boston Globe columnist Scot Lehigh, whose paper will reportedly be shut down by the end of the month if the unions don't come up with $20 million in givebacks, is pushing the idea, too.

I am not philosophically opposed to the notion that newspapers ought to be able to charge for their online content. The trouble is that it hasn't worked before, and it almost certainly won't work now. It's not that there aren't plenty of people who value what newspapers have to offer. It's that there are too many free sources of high-quality information, even at the local level.

Let's examine the doomsday scenerio

Let me hold off on the Globe for a moment, because this is easier to explain at the national level. Imagine we woke up tomorrow morning and discovered that the "Slate Five" - the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and the Los Angeles Times - were all charging for online content, either in the form of monthly subscriptions or "micropayments" - that is, click on an article and you'd be charged a nickel or a dime. (The Journal already charges for some online content.) What would we do?

A few months ago I marveled at the Times' success in attracting 19.5 million unique visitors a month to NYTimes.com during 2008, making it by far the most successful newspaper Web site. I immediately heard from a knowledgeable reader who pointed out that the Times' site wasn't even close to the largest news site.

Many free newssites are way ahead of any newspaper sites

According to Nielsen, MSNBC.com drew nearly 45 million unique visitors in January, followed closely by CNN.com, with 41.6 million. Yahoo News - which does pay for content, and thus can't be lumped with aggregators like Google News and the Huffington Post, which Associated Press chairman Dean Singleton was bellowing about last week (even though Google is a partner with the AP) - was third with 40.5 million. AOL News (!) came in fourth with 23 million. And then, finally, NYTimes.com came in fifth, with nearly 21.6 million - an impressive jump over its 2008 average, but still well behind its non-newspaper competitors.

Just to take the top two, MSNBC.com and CNN.com aren't going away, and they're not going to start charging. Unlike newspapers, MSNBC and CNN already have a reliable source of revenue in the form of cable fees and cable advertising. (MSNBC and MSNBC.com have different ownership structures, so MSNBC can't be said to "support" MSNBC.com; but NBC holds a significant stake in each.) And both MSNBC.com and CNN.com do some original journalism as well.

Do CNN.com and MSNBC.com offer the sort of depth and analysis that a great newspaper does? No. But consider that the discerning news consumer can also visit the Christian Science Monitor, NPR.org, The Guardian and Guardian America, BBC News and other sites that are now and will likely remain free. All of those sites are non-profits with Web strategies more advanced than most of those offered by for-profit newspapers. The truth is that even for someone who puts a premium on being well-informed, the Slate Five are optional.

Which brings me back to the Globe. In fact, the Globe may face fewer obstacles in charging for content than, say, the Times, because there aren't that many free sources of high-quality local news. Nevertheless, I still think it's a losing strategy.

Consider the news outlets with free Web sites. First and foremost there are WBUR and New England Cable News, which, at the moment, have the healthiest business models - listener contributions and corporate underwriting for the former, cable fees supplemented by advertising for the latter. Neither is going to start charging for online content, and both could be in a position to pump up their Web sites if the Globe starts charging.

There are numerous other outlets as well, of course - the Boston Phoenix, the Boston Herald and all of the over-the-air television stations, for starters. (WBZ, with both a television station and an all-news radio station, would seem to be particularly well-positioned.) Moreover, no one should be surprised if people start talking about a non-profit community Web site for Boston along the lines of the New Haven Independent, MinnPost or Voices of San Diego. And we've already got one of the best examples of intelligent local aggregation anywhere in Adam Gaffin's Universal Hub.

But what happens when the Globe has a significant exclusive? Sadly, the answer to that is easy. When the Globe breaks a long, important investigative story, every other news outlet runs stories that begin, "The Boston Globe today reported that ..." The quick summary will do for most people. And if you really want to read it, you can buy a copy of the paper. That's not going to buy many groceries.

So is it hopeless? I don't think so. I continue to think that there's a large group of readers who would be willing to pay much more for the print edition - certainly more than the modest price increase that was announced recently. Yes, a substantial price hike would hasten the day when the Globe (and other major dailies) becomes a niche publication for an elite audience. But with advertising drying up, someone has to pay. And if it's not going to happen online, then it has to be in print.

I also think there may be some promise in coming up with ways for newspaper Web sites to receive revenues from broadband providers. On the face of it, it makes no sense that Comcast and Verizon cable customers have to fork over money to CNN, MSNBC, Fox News and NECN, but Comcast and Verizon broadband customers pay nothing to the Globe, the Herald, the Times and other newspapers.

The logistics of such a system could be extremely difficult. What do you do about the thousands of bloggers who would demand their cut? It would very different from dealing with the finite world of cable channels.

Still, pursuing such new ideas would make a lot more sense than chasing after the dream of charging for online content - an old idea that failed, and that likely would fail again.

Dan Kennedy is an assistant professor at the Northeastern University School of Journalism. He writes for the Guardian (U.K.), CommonWealth Magazine and the Boston Phoenix, and is a regular panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press," hosted by Emily Rooney.

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Globe raises price 50%, pay publisher $1.9 million

Timing is everything
Globe publisher made $1.9 million last year

By Dan Kennedy in Medianation

Three months ago I posted the salaries and total compensation packages of the top executives at five troubled newspaper companies, including the New York Times Co., which owns the Boston Globe. Crickets chirped.

Globe raises prices for some customers
The Boston Herald reports that the Boston Globe will raise its prices outside of Greater Boston in an effort "to remain viable," according to a memo obtained by the Herald.
   Effective May 4, the cover price of the beleaguered broadsheet delivered outside of Greater Boston Monday through Saturday will increase to $1.50 - a 50-cent increase.
The price of the Sunday Globe will increase to $3.50 in Eastern Massachusetts and $4 everywhere else. Medianation.

Today Christine McConville of the Boston Herald gives us updated Times Co. figures, and it's the talk of the town - for obvious reasons, given that the Times is demanding a reported $20 million in union givebacks from the Globe as the price of keeping the paper alive.

McConville did some digging. I didn't know that Globe publisher Steven Ainsley made $1.9 million last year, and the information she's turned up on options and bonuses is fascinating in a stomach-churning kind of way. You've also got to love the nearly $250,000 in moving expenses Ainsley received in 2006.

On WRKO Radio (AM 680) this morning, Tom Finneran and Todd Feinburg were excoriating Times Co. managers for showering themselves with millions while they drove their business into the ground. Media Nation readers know that isn't right - the entire news industry is falling apart for reasons that go far beyond the ability of the affected companies to turn things around.

But there is a deeper truth, and it isn't pretty. For years, executives of news organizations - and corporations in general - paid themselves ridiculous amounts of money and argued that it was their expertise that led their companies to be so profitable.

Now we know they were essentially taking credit for the sunrise and paying themselves for it. The fraud has been exposed for all to see.

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Globe bankruptcy looms - investors say the situation "hopeless"

John Ellis predicts bankruptcy for the Globe

By Dan Kennedy, MediaNation

John Ellis, who knows his stuff, believes the best option for the Boston Globe is a prepackaged bankruptcy.

The $20 million in cuts the New York Times Co. is demanding will only tide them over for a few months.

A Bush cousin and venture capitalist who used to write a column for the Globe, Ellis writes that he recently worked with a group that was considering buying the paper - and that they all walked away after concluding that the situation was "hopeless."

"No one will buy it unless the unfunded liabilities are made to go away and the union contracts are voided," writes Ellis, who pegs those liabilites at $100 million. "That isn't an opinion, it's a fact."

No one is saying that things aren't very bad at the Globe. When you look at the numbers, you come to the inescapable conclusion that the $20 million in cuts the New York Times Co. is demanding will only tide them over for a few months.

It may have a different owner. Print edition may be cut back to three or four days a week

Still, Ellis isn't predicting that the Globe will fold. That's important to keep in mind. When I say that I'm cautiously optimistic - and I am - I'm not suggesting that we readers are going to live happily ever after.

The Globe that emerges from all this will be substantially smaller than even the shrunken paper we've become accustomed to. It may have a different owner. The print edition may be cut back to three or four days a week (but not eliminated, given that print ads are still the revenue-generators). But it will, I think, still be in business.

Gallows humor: Before I could post this item to Facebook, the anti-spam robot instructed me to type "assuage Times." MediaNation.

Dan Kennedy is an assistant professor at the Northeastern University School of Journalism. He writes for the Guardian (U.K.), CommonWealth Magazine and the Boston Phoenix, and is a regular panelist on WGBH-TV's "Beat the Press," hosted by Emily Rooney.

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