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By Mark Jurkowitz

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

34 Globe Buyout Candidates?
With the deadline having passed yesterday for applying for a Globe buyout, a list circulating in the building indicates that 34 editorial side employees have applied for the package, including eight staffers in a Living/Arts (features) department that would be hit particularly hard by the cutbacks.(The Globe has said it was looking to reduce the newsroom staff by about three dozen jobs).

The company still has to respond to the applicants as well as negotiate how long some of the departees will remain in their jobs. But among those confirmed buyout applicants are Travel editor Wendy Fox, pop culture writer Renee Graham, feature writer Jack Thomas, op-ed page editor Nick King, editorial writer Susan Trausch, obit writer Tom Long, theater critic Ed Siegel, business writer Charlie Stein, and music writer Steve Morse.

Media Log is trying to get confirmation of other names on the list. But one notable inclusion is long-time political columnist Tom Oliphant. More to come.

16 Comments:

Anonymous said...

While you're confirming the names of the buyout seekers, you should also ask about how the four-person desk at the editorial page will become a one-person operation, with the others, long accustomed to day hours, slated to be part of the "universal" night copy desk. Thus, news is embracing editorial. Also reported is the possible loss of two people in the Zones.

1:09 PM  
Anonymous said...

What the heck is the paper going to look like then???

This is perplexing and deeply embarrassing for this town to have a shadow of a newspaper, be it of the Globe or Herald variety.

Are they about to hire or promote a bunch of green interns to handle the space? They stil have to write about those sections, don't they?? Don't they need someone to wirte someone so they have pages to slap ads on???

Or are they going to divert political coorespondants to do travel reviews and obits on their down time?? There would be no down time actually anymore.

What is going on??

Why can't NYT Co just sell the damn paper and have someone try to revive it. They can keep the only piece they cherish, the Boston.com side and shove it. It is equally as useless. The only reason it is doing well it is by default. There is no other good site for the region. It is horrendous to browse on.

Why do we have to have these New york-centric figures hollow out our city's paper without explanations or at least a cry of help and offer to find a way out of their misery??

If anyone watched Pinch on Rose -no, not that way- he clearly lights up at the growth of online ads and seems on the surface optimistic about timeslect growth. He says the paper ad business is up so he doesn't see a panic mode yet. But they can't attract that much more on Boston.com and they can't be successful with a subscr system here in Boston with a smaller market.

So what do they do?

They kill Boston's paper in a slow death.

Sell the damn Red Sox stake and use the money to restructure and boost the paper is one thing I can think of. How much did they pay for Metro again??? Instead of printing SideKick, they oculd have slapped short wire stories on the same insett and distributed for free instead of buying Metro. But I guess they were more interested in taking out a rising ad competitor.

What a sorry @$$ drama watching these two Boston papers.

Pretty soon, we will only have a couple of Phoenix columnists as the most important in town.

What do you say, Mark. I hope you won't duck this question. YOu report on what happens there from your sources but you never say what you see/saw wrong with the paper or what in your eyes could be ways to revive it. I am not looking to have you breach any sepration clauses but generally speaking, you dont have to be specific orspill any bad beans.

So what do YOU think, Mark?

It's not gonna be one of those "Look at next week's Phoenix piece" answers, will it?? This is a 'forum' ie exchange, debate, instant feedback, quicker than once a week print.

N.

2:48 PM  
Anonymous said...

I agree with N. Pretty soon, the Globe will look like the Herald of 5 years ago.

3:24 PM  
MJ said...

This is from Mark Jurkowitz to the second anonymous post. Believe me, I don't have "any separation clauses" that prohibit me from saying anything about my former employer, the Globe. I am free to talk about anything I want.

You ask a lot of good,legitimate questions, staring with your first one, "What the heck is the paper going to look like then?"

But they can't be answered intelligently by batting off a quick off-the-cuff response to satisfy the instantaneous demands of online conversation.

Right now, those who have applied for a buyout have one more week to reconsider and the company has a week to determine how to deal with the applicants. After that point, Globe management will clearly have to think about how to reshuffle the deck and redeploy resources.

At that time, I will do a major reported story that will talk about where and how the Globe goes from here, whether and how much the paper and its readers will suffer from the cutbacks, how the paper can be revived and recover and whether the right people are in place to do that.

Rather than give you instant uninformed speculation, I would hope to deliver some real information and useful analysis. So as unsatisfying as that might be for now, I hope it'll be worth the wait.

4:13 PM  
Anonymous said...

Also worth noting, as an aside, is that it looks like Boston.com is exploring going to a pay model for its sports section. That would put all of the columnists and such behind a pay wall much like the one that currently imprisons the Times's editorial columnists. I guess it doesn't matter so much, since SHaughnessy and Ryan are irrelevant blowhards, but I'll miss Jackie MacMullan.

4:18 PM  
Ron Newman said...

I'm really going to miss Renee Graham if she goes. Who else is going to cover her beat? Please don't walk away, Renee.

6:53 PM  
Anonymous said...

Thanks Mark for the start of your coming answer/analysis.

For the 4:18PM poster, add me to the McMullen fan list. I think she is great. A great inspiration for many male wirters, let alone female journalists in general, a great read, straight talker with great knowledge.

( I can't understand why did she have to pile on the Red Sox bashing as well. Stay out of it, Jackie. I know you have to sow support for colleague, but some frizzy colleagues of yours are beyond PR help at this point. Let him be with his risk-taking He already said what matters is the opinion of his family and editors. Eff us unless we need to buy his shrill books)

If you are indeed right, poster about the pay plans for th esports section, That would be truly desperate and devastating. I am not a regular reader of the online sports pages unless there is a very good reason or some buzz, like Borges piece on Seymour. I glance through the print edition section.

Mike Reiss and Shira are good reads. Borges is worth a look often. Ryan drives me nuts but he has been behaving lately, off his Antoine Walker pitful bashing. I hate it when he strays onto other sports. He is good with Basketball, college sports and baseball or football sometimes. So I wouldn't dismiss him so quickly.

So point is, they do have a lot more of a reason to charge money for than their rivals at the Herald with a columnist and a half, and sports budget cuts. Tomase is an idiot who is back to football, so we'll see how relevant he becomes. Felger is the ONLy reason to read the sports section there now. Mazz is seriously getting on my nerves these days.

So this brings up a nagging question: How is the Herald really faring since the 'wall' went up?? How is there click traffic compared to an all free format? HWat is their subs number for only online users and how has it changed since the first months?

How easy/hard is it for a Herald or NYt or potentially Globe to climb down and bring the wall down admitting a mistake?

I can see how Howie could be a draw but then again, you can tune in for free everyday for four hours and hear his view on about anything, including changing oil on Boxsters. Why pay then?

So can some 'anonymous' or courageous non-anonymous soul from Our City's Second Favorite Paper respond to the subs number question or do they only respond when it serves their PR goals like in the Health Care issue?

N.

11:37 PM  
Willis said...

It is an impressive list of bylines that seem to be on the verge of leaving The Globe. But for several of them, their best days are long ago and far away. A sad reality of journalism is that once one makes it to a paper that pays a living wage, one tends to stay forever. And this when the nature of the craft itself shouts out for mobility among journalists to avoid such maladys as Woodward Disease (at the national politics level) or Frank Phillips Disease (at the state politics level), when the lines between reporter, archivist and sounding board becomes blurred. Many of the people heading out the door should have left years ago; others will use the buyout to fund book-writing and may actually have their best work ahead of them.

8:39 AM  
Anonymous said...

I disagree on Jackie MacMullan. I don't like her writing, her wig or her mustauche.

Shave her, then can her.

9:06 AM  
Anonymous said...

Renee Graham? Please! The Globe should have dumped her ten years ago. Last week she and her pop culture column discovered - gasp - Arrested Development - right after it had been canned, after three seasons. This week she moans about Robbie Williams not finding a pop career in the U.S. Next week: mood rings, hula hoops and some singer named Madonna. She's as relevant as a tree stump.

9:38 AM  
Anonymous said...

It would be most pleasing if the Globe took CHB and Co. off the table by putting them behind a subscription wall.

12:22 PM  
mike_b1 said...

Anon wrote: "Renee Graham? Please! ... Next week: mood rings, hula hoops and some singer named Madonna. She's as relevant as a tree stump."

Now THAT's funny!

2:01 PM  
Anonymous said...

Maybe Bella English can take over Renee Graham's beat ha ha.

I'll miss Tom Oliphant's columns. I presume he'll pop up elsewhere.

The Globe is getting thin, mighty thin! Even I, as a long-time subscriber, am tempted to cancel.

6:30 PM  
AmusedButInterestedObserver said...

Bella English??!?!? Maybe before they waste any space on her ramblings they should take a look at her 'winners and losers' column that ran right after the "end" of Gulf War I and compare it to an AP distributed piece which was verrrrry similar in tone and appearance. Not that 'winners and losers' pieces aren't an oft-used device, but these two were alarmingly similar. Not sure which came first however, so maybe Bella was the victim.

12:58 AM  
ward view said...

Keep in mind these buyouts are primarily about dumping payroll, and has been going on at the Globe for many years, even pre-NYT.

I wouldn't be surprised to see several of the writers on Mark's list continue to appear as non-staff contributors from time to time, ala Nathon Cobb.

10:34 AM  
Anonymous said...

The Boston Media shots themselves in the foot. Mark are you telling me the Globe got rid of Charley Stein. I loved Mr. Steins reporting, when the globe let him report. The Massachusetts media are only worried about profits. The media could be so much more in this state, but it's controlled by the corporate heads who spend their summers out at the cape. Sad, Sad state of affairs for the state of the media. And not just because of the Globe buyouts, but your all just so one sideed. The Globe is a rag and the herald is a rag. You gonna try and tell me the Globe doesn't need more business reports or state house reports. Mark, the Newspaper, T.V., and Radio media should go out of business because the product is not there. I've been to so many business and statehouse events over the last two years in Massachusetts and new England, and there were no T.V. reporters or newspaper reporters. And if they are there the reporters write some little mini article. The media suppose inform the People, but you'll have fell.

2:10 PM  

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