Free the Herald

For almost two weeks Boston Herald employees have been wearing little black ribbons in a show of solidarity trying to keep their jobs. This weekend the Herald announced that they would be scraping the Barnicles off the ship in order to save some money. To hit the $7 million budget reduction the paper’s top brass proposed a one-quarter staff reduction, Bostonist has gotten word that the Newspaper Guild says agreement has been reached and a public announcement is expected soon. While we’re all trying to read the tea leaves Bostonist has a suggestion for the Herald: go free. For fifty cents we can buy the Globe, so why choose the Herald? Because of the hard hitting stories about Britney’s baby? Perhaps it’s the flashy pictures of beautiful people? Maybe it’s just the contrast of conservative viewpoints with sexy girls gone wild.

With the Metro and the Globe merged the circulation of the combined entity is well over half a million. The Boston Herald should regain some ground by giving their papers away, as they do most afternoons when papers remain unsold. Bostonist would choose the Boston Herald over the current free daily, the Metro. Increase circulation and in turn ad revenue. This was precisely the motivation behind the Metro and Globe merger: ad revenue. On Sunday the Boston Herald could even cost a buck or so and finish all those cliffhanger features left from during the week. The Boston Herald is a newsstand paper. No one is paying for home delivery. Give it away like they do with the Metro and compete.