Results tagged “globedeathwatch”

Though this happened years ago (by Internet Time, aka last Wednesday), Bostonist would be remiss if we didn't mention yet another example of the Boston Globe quickly diminishing standards. Not content to merely wilt and die, the Globe continues its mission to commit suicide in the grandest way possible: by publishing ridiculous tripe that no one with a lump of grey matter between their ears would believe. Case in point: this op-ed by a creationist, claiming that Thomas Jefferson would be a creationist and so it must be true, or something or other.

The Boston Newspaper Guild approved $10 million in concessions tonight, marking a possible temporary end to the dragged-out negotiations with Boston Globe owner New York Times Company. Around 80% of Guild members showed up to vote on their fate, with a final score of 366 yay and 179 nay. Maybe this shows that journalism does have a future: just $10 million less of one. According to the Herald, the money-saving deductions include a "5.9 percent pay cut, eight unpaid days off, a pension freeze and the elimination of the 401(k) contributions as well as the lifetime job guarantees held by nearly 200 union members." Dan Kennedy has an email from Boston Globe editor Marty Baron to his workers thanking them for keeping up their "commitment to deliver journalism of the highest caliber" throughout the negotiations. Despite the deal, the Globe is still up for sale for the moment.

We all know that the Globe is on life support, or minimum wage, or something like that. To add insult to injury, Jack Shafer reminds us in Slate (owned by the struggling WaPo) that Jack Welch of GE thought about buying the paper (now valued at barely $113 million) for a cool $600 million just three years ago. Oddly enough, Dan Kennedy reveals that Jack Welch is now tweeting (somewhat ironically, perhaps) about the NYT's "brutish labor practices." What a show!

So, the Boston Newspaper Guild voted to reject the New York Times Company's proposed contract that would cut wages and benefits by $10 million. And, in response, the New York Times Co. instituted a unilateral 23% pay cut effective Sunday for all Globe employees covered under the Boston Newspaper Guild's contract. What next?

Middlebrow and profligate, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman has never been described as "subtle" or "tactful." Now, his big mouth has inadvertently given the Boston Newspaper Guild a reason to vote against the contracts that the Times is shoving down the throats of its employees at the Globe.

Is the Globe a walking corpse, a lumbering zombie intent on devouring its readers' fragile brains? Or is it more like a vampire with a soul, the undead that still has some good left in it?

At 3:00 this morning, the Boston Newspaper Guild and the New York Times Company reportedly reached a deal that would keep the Boston Globe in business. Salary cuts, unpaid leave, and the demise of lifetime jobs for nearly 200 Guild members helped the Globe save the $20 million requested by the NYT. More details will be available after the Guild's leaders and members meet, reportedly on Thursday, to vote on the agreement.

In a big new twist, the Boston Globe is proposing a 23% wage cut for its employees to meet the New York Times Company's demands for financial concessions. 23 percent is a huge amount: it cuts a $50k salary down to $38.5, still livable but not quite so comfy. Is this what it'll take to keep a Boston paper owned by New York?

As Globe staffers wave their recession mugs, we've compiled five reasons why the Globe is bleeding like a stuck pig. In no particular order: