Boston Herald Fails to Deliver on Globe Meltdown

December 31, 2015

The hardreading has often labeled our Boston Herald home subscription the Biggest. Waste. Ever. And, for the most part, it has been, thanks to its spasmodic delivery.

But this week, the Boston Globe has given the finicky local tabloid a run for its wasted money.

From the Globe’s website:

 

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“Disruption,” of course, is a euphemism for going Chernobyl for the past four days. Here’s a list of the 90 towns currently experiencing “delivery delays.” (It should be 91, as the hardlyreading staff didn’t get its copy of the Globe today. We did, however, get the other three we subscribe to.)

The oddest thing, though, is how few news outlets are covering the absolute meltdown of the Globe’s home delivery. The redoubtable Dan Kennedy had this piece yesterday at WGBH News, and WBZ’s Jon Keller has been on the story like Brown on Williamson. (Full disclosure: Keller interviewed us for his piece, which obviously gave us a kenahora, since we had gotten the Globe all week up until today.)

Most amazing of all, though: Nothing in the Boston Herald. Nothing.

Man, have they lost their fastball.


To Know Trump, Read Both Boston Dailies

December 29, 2015

From our One Towne, Two Different Worlds desk

Presidential frontrunner Donald Trump (R-Donald Trump) gets the coveted Boston Herald Pooh-Pooh Platter (pat. pending) today, with the target being Bill Clinton.

Page One:

 

MA_BH

 

Inside spread (with bonanza of Inexplicable Little Green Numbers):

 

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We’ll leave you to read the cartoon columnists for yourself (here and here). But we do want to point out this quote in the news report from Lori Davis, a member of the “Women for Trump” Coalition in New Hampshire.

“Hillary has some issues with how Mr. Trump views women. She claims Mr. Trump is sexist,” Davis said. “Meanwhile, her husband can’t seem to stay monogamous — not to mention even discreet. Perhaps she might want to rethink things before she starts tackling Mr. Trump. She should clean up her own house.”

 

That’ll be an interesting leitmotif to follow as the Big Dog hits the campaign trail.

Rounding out the frothy local tabloid’s Trumpa Stumpa coverage, columnist Kimberly Atkins proposes in her usual levelheaded way that maybe Bill could help Hill. There’s a special place reserved in heaven for anyone who can maintain a measured voice at the Herald, and Atkins seems a mortal lock for first-ballot entry.

Crosstown at the Boston Globe, the GOP’s Hair Apparent gets the usual treatment in a balanced trail report from Jim O’Sullivan (representative sample: “[Trump] assured New Hampshire residents that their first-in-the-nation primary would be secure if he were elected, even though the chief executive has no direct authority over party primary calendars.”). And columnist Joan Vennochi weighed in with some observations about Hillary’s Bill problem.

In other words, everyone ran true to form today on the local dailies front.


Boston Herald: Jeb Should Just Set $14m on Fire

December 27, 2015

From our Day Late, Dollar Short desk

The fiscally local tabloid had this one all to its own self yesterday.

 

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Is he nuts? graf:

 

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Crosstown, the Boston Globe front-paged Matt Viser’s piece about the pollution of polls in the political process. And down in the Big Town, the New York Times examined whether Jeb Bush is funny. Here’s guessing WMUR and etc. think he’s hilarious.

Anyway, score one for the Herald.


Boston Herald Skittish About Yiddish

December 23, 2015

So by now everyone has seen Donald Trump’s potty-mouthed remarks yesterday about Hillary Clinton, yes?

Actually, no – if you’re a Boston Herald reader.

The dainty local tabloid featured kids glove treatment in Kimberly Atkins’ column today.

As [sic] a campaign rally Monday night in Grand Rapids, Mich., Trump derided Clinton for her 2008 presidential primary loss to President Obama.

“She was going to beat Obama,” Trump said to the crowd. “I don’t know who’d be worse. I don’t know. How does it get worse? She was favored to win and she got (expletive). She lost. She lost.”

 

The piece described the expletive as “a vulgar Yiddish word.”

Crosstown, the Boston Globe let it fly in its Associated Press pick-up.

WASHINGTON — Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump labeled Democrat Hillary Clinton ‘‘disgusting’’ for using the restroom during a commercial break at the last Democratic debate and used crude language to describe her primary loss to Barack Obama in 2008.

‘‘She was favored to win and she got schlonged, she lost,’’ he said on Monday night, using a slang word for penis.

 

Meshugge, eh?

As a special bonus, both pieces included this from Clinton: “We shouldn’t let anybody bully his way into the presidency. Because that is not who we are as Americans.’’ (Clinton is channeling Barack Obama there, whose use of that trope was smartly chronicled by the ever readable Andrew Ferguson in the Weekly Standard last year.)

Maybe it’s not who we are as Americans, but it’s certainly who Donald Trump is as a candidate.

To stick with Yiddish, a shmuck.


Boston Herald Joins Globe in Editorial Bake Sale

December 18, 2015

As the hardreading staff has noted in detail, the Boston Globe has of late been leasing out editorial content to paymates of various stripes, from Rockland Trust to Suffolk University to Steward Health Care System.

And now, not surprisingly, the stealthy local tabloid wants in on the auction – in this case via Boston Herald Radio, the streaming audio service that up to dozens of people listen to.

Today’s Herald, page 17:

 

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Upper right:

 

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The frosty (cashword) local tabloid has often run excerpts from BHR interviews alongside its daily promotional ad. But this is the first time the interview is “Sponsored Content” – that is to say, an ad itself.

We get it that newspapers have to come up with creative ways to generate revenue, which is one reason all this sponsored content is suddenly popping up.

We’re just wondering if there’s any bottom to that well.


Boston Globe Extends Editorial Bake Sale to Arts

December 14, 2015

As the hardreading staff has recently noted, the Boston Globe has lately been auctioning off various sections of the paper to the highest marketing bidder.

Call the roll of recent acquisitions:

First the $tately local broadsheet mortgaged past of its Business section to Rockland Trust.

Then Suffolk University turned the Globe’s Capital Section into a satellite campus – especially Joshua Miller’s Political Happy Hour.

Representative sample from yesterday’s Business section:

 

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Beyond that, Steward Health Care System is co-paying for James Pindell’s Ground Game coverage of the presidential primaries.

Now comes the Boston Globe Arts Auction.  First there was this tease on Page One of yesterday’s Arts section.

 

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Then there was this two-page spread by Mark Feeney about the upcoming Star Wars release.

 

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Note the Showcase MX4D ad at upper left. Sure looks like paidvertorial, doesn’t it?

Then note this ad one page later.

 

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Do we see a pattern emerging here?

Better question: Is there any Boston Globe editorial content that’s not for sale?

Just wondering.


The Essential Difference Between the Boston Dailies

December 11, 2015

From our One Towne, Two Different Worlds desk

As the hardreading staff has (we trust) dutifully noted, the local dailies rarely see eye-to-eye on any particular story.

Yesterday was no exception.

But it was particularly illuminating. And it all revolved around fan safety at Fenway Park, where most fans go to 1) see a Red Sox victory, and 2) avoid any major head injuries.

Boston Globe Page One:

SAFE AT HOME

Sox to heed MLB’s recommendation for additional protective netting

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NASHVILLE — Major League Baseball on Wednesday took steps to protect those fans who want to sit close to the action, recommending that all teams extend protective netting between the dugouts for any field-level seats within 70 feet of home plate.

The Red Sox immediately announced they would comply and are making plans to extend the netting behind home plate to the dugouts. Team president Sam Kennedy said the Sox are evaluating what the size and type of the netting will be.

 

The Globe piece also included this helpful graphic about fans injured in Major League ballparks each year:

 

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To illustrate one example, the stately local broadsheet mentioned this in paragraph 11:

On July 10, a woman sitting [near the edge of the backstop screen] was hit in the forehead by a foul ball. Stephanie Wapenski, 36, of Branford, Conn., required more than 40 stitches.

 

Crosstown at the Boston Herald, Stephanie Wapenski was no footnote – she was the hitchy local tabloid’s Cover Girl.

 

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From the estimable Peter Gelzinis:

Field of Dreams: Fan Nets Fairy Tale Fenway Ending

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Even if the Red Sox didn’t plan to extend the protective netting along the first- and third-base lines, Stephanie Wapenski had no intention of staying away from the ballpark she loves. And now, in a fairy-tale ending to her hard luck story, she’s going back for love.

Wapenski was six rows up from the third-base line, watching the Sox play the Yankees last July. She recalled telling her fiance, Matt Fraenza, “We’re going to catch a ball tonight.”

What this Connecticut woman wound up catching on that night was a 100 mph line-drive foul from Yankees shortstop Didi Gregorius that ricocheted off her forehead and landed in short left field.

 

But then . . .

“When the Red Sox asked what they could do for us,” Stephanie recalled, “we mentioned that we weren’t interested in pursuing any legal action. We told them we were rabid baseball fans who would love to be married at Fenway.”

The Red Sox didn’t need to be asked twice. They waived the $10,000 fee other couples, who have not been beaned by a line drive, must pay to be married on the field.

 

Excellent!

And an excellent example of the gap between the rational local broadsheet and the emotional local tabloid.

So we say . . . long live Two-Daily Towns!

Or at least what’s left of them.


Mass. Mayors Put Boston Herald at DisADvantage

December 10, 2015

As the hardreading staff has repeatedly pointed out, the Boston Herald rarely gets any love from groups or individuals running full-page advocacy or tribute ads, virtually all of which wind up exclusively in the Boston Globe.

Exhibit Umpteen, from today’s edition:

 

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Copy close-up:

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Ad sponsor AJC Boston apparently doesn’t believe that Herald readers are interested in 57 municipal leaders “[taking] a stand and [speaking] out against an ancient hatred that once again is raging in places around the globe.”

So once again the thirsty local tabloid goes without.

Huh.


Boston Globe Lends Capital to Suffolk University

December 4, 2015

It wasn’t that long ago that the Boston Herald served as a sort of satellite campus for Suffolk University, teaming up on everything from polling to webcasts to editorial content.

But now Day Hop U has transferred out of the flunky local tabloid and enrolled in the Boston Globe’s Capital section.

Page One of today’s $tately local broadsheet (see bottom).

 

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And Page One of the Capital section (see top and bottom).

 

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Inside, readers get a fuller picture of the Globe/Suffolk collaboration, especially the Suffolk Solutions – what to call it? – marketing initiative that also include Globe reporter Joshua Miller’s Political Happy Hour (which now features a Suffolk University logo). The ad on page 3:

 

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For the body copy-impaired:

 

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If you go to the Suffolk Solutions site embedded in BostonGlobe.com, you find this “Sponsored” home page:

 

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And here’s the video, which features Rachel Cobb, associate professor and chair of Suffolk University’s Department of Government, who’s also featured in the print ad.

 

 

Don’t be surprised if Dr. Cobb also finds her way into some of the Globe’s editorial coverage of local politics.

The Suffolk alliance is the second of these sponsorships the Globe has recently unveiled (the hardreading staff noted this one with Rockland Trust in the Business section last month).

But – wait – there’s yet a third, comfortably nestled in the Globe’s front-page News in brief column:

 

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Yes, apparently the $tately local broadsheet has also auctioned off James Pindell’s Ground Game vertical covering the presidential primaries. The highest bidder? Steward Health Care System.

 

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We look forward to further leasing out of the Boston Globe’s editorial content. Your suggestions go here . . .