It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town

In a variation on the old Does Macy’s Tell Gimbel’s? question, the Globe is telling on the Herald – and vice versa.

From Wednesday’s Boston Globe:

Globe circulation continues climb

Paid digital subscriptions rise nearly 50%

Paid circulation at The Boston Globe continues to climb on the strength of digital subscriptions, which shot up by almost 50 percent in six months, according to figures released Tuesday by the Alliance for Audited Media.

The Globe’s weekday circulation, which includes print readership and digital subscriptions, was 245,572 during the six-month period ended in March — the highest since 2009 and 8.9 percent higher than figures for the same period a year earlier. Sunday circulation rose 4.6 percent to 382,452.

But amid the good news, the bad:

The Boston Herald, which charges for an electronic replica of its print edition but offers free access to its website, reported 9,810 weekday digital subscriptions and total circulation of 95,929, an overall decline of 11.6 percent.

The Herald’s Sunday circulation fell 10.8 percent to 73,043.

The Herald did not respond to a request for comment.

Not only that, the Herald did not report its precipitous circulation decline.

But the feisty local tabloid did report the turmoil at Wednesday’s annual shareholder meeting of Globe parent New York Times Co.

New York Times execs on hot seat

Shareholders question wages, Globe sale

NEW YORK — New York Times executives came under pressure over their hefty compensation packages from shareholders yesterday who peppered the corporate brass with questions about belt-tightening and plans to jettison properties such as the Boston Globe.

“What kind of sacrifices have the executives made?” asked William Niederkorn, a former Times reporter, at the 117th annual shareholders meeting. He said he is dismayed to watch the Times’ stock value plummet.

“The stock was once $50 a share, now it’s down to $4,” he said.

Just about how much the Herald might be valued on the open market.

Poetic justice, yes?

Regardless, the Globe, in turn, did not report the Times Co. shareholder dustup.

Just another crisscross in the two-daily town.

This entry was posted on Friday, May 3rd, 2013 at 5:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.