Behind the face lift

(continued)

by Dan Kennedy

CAREFUL OBSERVER: Alex Jones, who co-authored a history documenting the Globe's sale to the Times Company, is unsurprised by the Taylors' fall.

Toward the end of The Trust, the history of the Sulzberger family published in 1999, authors Susan Tifft and Alex Jones tell the tale of then-publisher William Taylor's decision to sell the Globe to the Sulzbergers in 1993. The emphasis in the $1.1 billion deal was on protection for the Taylors, in the form of a five-year hands-off commitment. "After that," Tifft and Jones write, "the Taylors had a `moral commitment' from the Times that members of the Taylor family could continue to run the paper."

As it turned out, that moral commitment lasted just a little more than a year. "If Ben [Taylor] thought he was bullet-proof in that environment, then he was mistaken," says Jones, the recently installed director of the Joan Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics, and Public Policy, part of Harvard's Kennedy School. In a coda to the Taylor era, executive vice-president Stephen Taylor -- the last member of his family employed by the Globe -- was among those who accepted a management buyout earlier this month.

More than anything, the Globe's new strategy is a reminder, as if any were needed, that the Taylors are no longer in charge; and that Richard Gilman, whose ultimate loyalty is to the Times Company, is dedicated to generating as much revenue for his employers as he can.

Yet there may be another Times-related lesson here too. Over the decades, whenever the Mother Ship was threatened, the Sulzbergers responded by taking the more-and-better approach. In the face of a newsprint shortage during World War II, the arch-rival New York Herald Tribune cut its news hole; the Times cut advertising instead, and opened up a circulation lead that ended only with the Trib's death. In the face of advertising and circulation challenges in the 1970s, the Times unveiled striking new sections devoted to lifestyles, the arts, and science and technology.

Now, by expanding in an effort to make more money rather than shrinking to save money, Gilman is taking a similar approach with the Globe. And if that enables the Globe to avoid the fate of its peers around the country, then he will have performed a genuine service.

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Dan Kennedy's work can be accessed from his Web site: http://www.dankennedy.net

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Dan Kennedy can be reached at dkennedy@phx.com

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Articles from July 24, 1997 & before can be accessed here

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