Posted on 10/20/2005 8:06:55 AM PDT by Pikamax
Bored readers cutting off Globes circulation By Jay Fitzgerald Thursday, October 20, 2005 - Updated: 07:59 AM EST
Circulation is melting away at the Boston Globe, on top of vanishing ad revenue, and the need for deep cuts is forcing closure of its national news desk and two sections within the broadsheet.
But the New York Times Co., parent company of the Globe, is standing by Globe publisher Richard Gilman and his management team even as Morrissey Boulevard has become a drag on Times Co. earnings.
The Times Co. said yesterday its Boston paper's weekday circulation plunged by nearly 8 percent over the past six months compared to last year dropping 35,000 copies to 416,000, despite heavy marketing and steep price discounts offered by the newspaper.
Its Sunday circulation fell by 55,000 about 7.6 percent to 667,000.
Circulation at the parent Times newspaper saw a slight gain during the same period, the company reported.
The Globe is also the Times' poor performer on the ad front.
Its New England Media Group which includes the Globe and Worcester Telegram saw ad revenue fall by 4.1 percent in September and by 2.9 percent in the third quarter, the company said.
The Times ad revenue, in contrast, climbed by 3.8 percent in September and by 2.9 percent during the third quarter.
Times Co. earnings fell by more than 50 percent in the third quarter because of higher costs and a charge related to staff cutbacks.
The company's shares fell 26 cents yesterday to a six-year low of $27.49.
Janet Robinson, chief executive of the New York Times Co., attributed the Globe's poor showing to a ``continuing softness in the Boston economy.''
Despite the Globe's drag on companywide performance, Times Co. spokeswoman Catherine Mathis said the company is standing by Gilman and his Globe management team.
The entire newspaper industry has been suffering in recent years, due to a severe advertising recession and increased competition from the Internet.
The Boston Herald, owned by the private Herald Media Inc., saw its circulation fall by about 4 percent during the past six months, half of which Herald officials say is attributable to changed ABC auditing rules.
Al Larkin, a Globe spokesman, said about half of its six-month circulation drop is due to a decision to eliminate bulk giveaways to hotels and other sponsored deliveries.
Robinson had kind words yesterday for the Herald, which is searching for new investment partners.
``We always feel it's important to have a strong competitor in the market,'' she said. ``We certainly want the Herald to have more investments and certainly to continue to be a strong competitor.''
Last month, the Times announced that it would eliminate 500 jobs companywide about 135 of them at the Globe.
Yesterday, sources confirmed that the Globe plans to eliminate its national news department.
The unit's two reporters have reportedly been offered jobs within the metro department in the Hub newsroom. But the fate of the four editors is unclear.
Globe editor Marty Baron declined comment.
Larkin would only say the Globe is ``realigning our national desk'' and placing responsibility for national coverage under control of the 11-employee Washington bureau.
Meanwhile, the Globe is also planning to eliminate its Education section on Sundays, as well as eliminate its Life At Home as a separate section. It will be rolled into the Thursday Living section.
The Globe sucks.
Ha-ha. Until these yokels understand that being a left wing shill simply doesn't cut it anymore (even in Massachusetts), they are just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titantic.
The Federal Reserve reported recently that Massachusetts was the ONLY state in the union that lost more residents than it gained last year. Massachusetts also ranked 45th in economic growth. Gee what a suprise!
Vermont was also in the 40s and so was Maine and R.I. Conn. was around 34th.
Now, New Hampshire, which has the lowest tax rate in New England? The Granite State ranked 14th...heads and shoulders above its neighbors. Jeepers, what does this tell us?
No surprise that the Boston Globe is going downhill in circulation. A knee-jerk liberal broadsheet is what it is.
The Globe is "Stuck on stupid."
Janet Robinson, chief executive of the New York Times Co., attributed the Globe's poor showing to a ``continuing softness in the Boston economy.''
Yeah ... always an excuse ... what she wanted to say is:
It's Bush's fault!
Maybe that's what the readers are sick of and getting their news elsewhere.
You're 100% right.
I'm one of the MASS exodus folks. I now live in Georgia.
Boo hoo sniff sniff.
Why would they need a national news department when the DNC writes all those stories for them anyway?
Did I miss anything?
Congressman Billybob
Well, you have much company, don't you?
Isn't it nice to be around people who are polite?
I left years ago and never regretted it for a single moment. MA is a very strange place.
errr, actually Janet, I would say it's because of the softness in your editorialist's brains that are driving your subscribers and advertisers away. Of course you don't want to hear that, since you intellectual idiot types firmly believe you are right about everything - but the public is finally catching on about MSM.....here's to you being totally broke in five years...salute!!!!
The people in GA are good folks. Sadly, my children still live in or around MA.
Fortunately, the Sports section remains largely untouched by bias, and it is the only reason left that I read the paper at all (that and Jeff Jacoby on Thursdays - he's the Globe's "house conservative". The rest of the op-eds range from the merely inane (Tom Oliphant) to the "Stuck-on-Stupid" (Derrick Z. Jackson) to the sickeningly anti-American (James Carroll). When you're too loonie left for Massachusetts, you've got a problem.
Ditto.
Interesting to see the Herald reporting this, I wonder if it made the Globe?
I'm proud to say I've done my part by cancelling my subscription several months ago and laughing at their repeated calls to renew. I get called at least once a month. EVERY TIME I tell them know and tell them I disagree with their politics. I guess I should tell them to take me off their list, but I do enjoy laughing at them and taking up their time.
It's down right delicious that these morons STILL can't figure out that their lying and crappy reporting coupled with their blatant liberal bias is their main problem. It sure is a comfort to know they are so clueless and will keep digging their hole.
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