BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, May 23, 2003
Coming to earth? Boston
Herald publisher Pat Purcell's gravity-defying act has been dealt
a setback. Dow Jones reports that Purcell is making some
significant cutbacks at
Herald Media, which owns the Herald and Community Newspaper
Company, a chain of about 100 papers in Greater Boston and on Cape
Cod. (Thanks to Cape
Cod Media for pointing me
to this one.)
In recent weeks, insiders have told
me that though things were tight, there was no sign that Purcell was
in any financial jeopardy. The Washington office has been expanded
from one person to two, and the Herald sent two people to
cover the war in Iraq -- a significant expense for what is,
essentially, a local paper.
It also comes at a time when the
Herald has been tarting itself up. Former editor Ken Chandler,
who went on to edit the New York Post, is back as a consultant
to Purcell, and the pages lately have been notably more tabloidy, to
the distress of some staffers. In addition to such headlines as
today's all-caps "POLS PIG OUT" (pork-barrel spending on Beacon Hill)
and "HELL NEXT DOOR" (the Hells Angels have bought a house in
Chelsea), the paper's two gossip pages have been brought together
under the "Inside Track" brand, complete with a comely bimbo of the
day.
Still, speculation that Rupert
Murdoch, the owner of WFXT-TV (Channel 25), will buy the
Herald strikes me as wrong, or at least very premature.
Purcell loves being a local media magnate and, if anything, he's been
talking about further acquisitions, not a sellout. The
Herald's business pages have endlessly hyped the pending
repeal of the cross-ownership laws, and Purcell recently told the
crowd at his Herald 100 luncheon that he wants to become a radio
entrepreneur.
Sounds to me like Purcell intends
to try defying gravity for at least a little while longer.
posted at 10:42 AM |
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MEDIA LOG ARCHIVES
Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
