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Industry & Academic Insiders On Boston Globe Crisis

Many newspapers are dealing with reader gravitation away from print news and toward news online.

The Republican, a newspaper based in Springfield, Massachusetts, has a separate Web site component called “MassLive.” It’s headed by a five-person team, which include TV and local sports bloggers. The Web site posts headline news in addition to message boards. They thrive off reader comments and try to connect with their audience. The MassLive team has become community oriented.

The Christian Science Monitor recently went online-only last year. They now publish an issue weekly.

When news hit the stands about the potential closing of the Boston Globe, industry insiders and academics expressed mixed feelings of what it would be like without this significant news entity that has existed since 1872. Many wondered how the citizens of Boston and surrounding regions would react without a print version of one of the most popular area papers and whether or not the Globe’s Web site, Boston.com, would remain online.

Industry insiders were generally surprised at the thought of the Globe shutting down. Ed Kubosiak, online editor at MassLive, feels a deep connection with the Globe, even though he lives in western Massachusetts. He admits to “being upset at the thought of the organization going away, it’s jarring.”

Wayne Braverman, senior editor at Gatehouse Media at the Community Newspaper Company in Needham, expected the Boston Herald, another Boston newspaper, to close first.

“I was really surprised that the Globe was on the block to be eliminated. Just a year ago, people were wondering about the Herald. No one thought the Globe would be facing elimination from the publishing world,” said Braverman.

Insiders remain optimistic regarding the Globe’s future, even before the Union agreements. Erik Gallant, a sports blogger and producer at MassLive, believes that the Globe (along with all newspapers) will eventually move online only.

“Even if they if they stop printing the physical paper, I think they will be pretty well set up and continue on and the reason for that is because I think they have a lot of great writers. I think those writers are the people who draw people to the paper and the website,” said Gallant.

MassLive senior producer, Jeff Hobbs, has faith in the Globe’s innovativeness.

“If the print went away, it would still be a highly successful website,” said Hobbs.

Senior lecturer B.J. Roche, who teaches in the journalism program at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is also looking at the future of the Boston Globe as an online-only entity with a smaller newsroom, and believes the troubles faced by the Globe are “a problem of advertising.”

“People will see a lot less real reporting because they won’t have the bodies to do it,” said Roche.

Roche had a weekly column about New England titled “Peaks and Valleys,” in the Sunday edition of the Boston Globe three years ago.

“To get something published in the Globe was a huge accomplishment,” said Roche, “where are you going to get an audience of half a million viewers?”

Roche’s column was cut, because “it wasn’t necessary.”

Some question whether an online-only model would work.

The Globe is not charging for content on Boston.com now, but that may change in the future.

Braverman, whose paper has a weekly paid model, wonders, “Why would I want to pay for the Globe? I can read the whole thing online…the newspaper industry has given you a free plate online.” Gallant believes that the appetite for news remains, even in the younger generation.

Over the past few years, the Globe has changed its focus of coverage. It covers big world and national news and happenings inside of Boston. The Globe only covers western Massachusetts (and other regions of New England) when a big story breaks there, therefore leaving some readers to gravitate towards local papers, such as The Daily Hampshire Gazette or The Republican, the print version of MassLive.

The closing of the Globe would affect the Boston area the greatest, but would affect the rest of Massachusetts differently.

Roche does not think the closing of the print edition of the Globe would “affect anywhere outside of that tight suburb of Boston…I don’t think it would affect the Amherst area at all.”

Kubosiak is based in Springfield and deals with mostly western Massachusetts news. He said, “There’s been a pattern of thinking that eastern Massachusetts doesn’t care about western Massachusetts, whether on the political news front [or elsewhere]. I haven’t felt that all that much. The Globe would usually cover UMass basketball.  I think they need to do a great job with Boston, there’s a lot going on there.”

Assistant Editor for the Gardner News, Andres Caamano, would be affected by a shutdown of the Globe. He values the content that the Globe sells to the Associated Press.

“The stories that the Associated Press has sent out about the Craigslist killing have been mostly from the Globe. The impact would be felt in small newspapers in Massachusetts and throughout the country.”

The Globe has been a watchdog organization for the City of Boston for many years. Citizens rely on its strong reporting to keep politicians in check and inform them of the happenings at City Hall. Braverman believes it would be a problem if the Globe shut down.

“If the Globe or the Herald went away, they wouldn’t be watching them (politicians). They would go scot-free. The good things that the politicians do wouldn’t be known either,” said Braverman.

Kubosiak also elaborated on the situation.

“I think of the globe as an important entity, both for the community and as an institution. They’ve proven over the years to be a watch dog,” said Kubosiak.

Roche is worried about the impact on politics and that there will be lighter coverage of City Hall. “No citizen blogger is going to know how to go in and research public documents,” said Roche. “They don’t have the skills like someone who has worked 20 years on a political beat.”

“Quite honestly I don’t know how they’ll prevent something like this again,” said Marshall Ingwerson, managing editor of the Christian Science Monitor. “They are in the same situation as most metro newspapers making financial cuts.”

While the Globe may be fine for now, it is likely that in the near future they will be faced with making more financial cuts as readers continue to rely on the Internet as their main source of news. As a result of the warning from the New York Times Company, on May 6, 2009 the Boston Globe proposed pay cuts, unpaid furloughs, and the elimination of lifetime contracts to ensure that the Globe would not shut down. The Boston Newspaper Guild still needs to vote on the wage cuts.