Boston Globe Home Delivery Not Yet Gone Chernobyl

June 23, 2017

You splendid readers undoubtedly remember the Great Home Delivery Meltdown from last year when the Boston Globe switched distributors much to the paper’s regret.

This week the Globe not only moved into new downtown digs at 53 State Street, it also switched printing facilities, as Peter Doucette, Chief Consumer Revenue Officer, informed subscribers in an email.

 

 

That was Monday. All went well for three full days. Then came this.

 

 

Indeed, no Globe arrived yesterday at the Global Worldwide Headquarters of Two-Daily Town. When the same email came this morning, the hardreading staff braced itself for more home delivery headaches.

But lo and behold, both papers did arrive today.

So, well done, you former Morrissey Boulevardiers.

And mazel tov on the new home.

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Is Sebastian Smee Jumping to the NYT (Part 2)

June 15, 2017

As you splendid readers might recall, the other day we noted this New York Times piece by Boston Globe art critic Sebastian Smee.

 

And we wondered whether Smee – whose Twitter profile describes him as “Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic for the Boston Globe, on leave in Australia for all of 2017” – was just having a summer fling with the Good Grey Lady or was perhaps setting up housekeeping with her.

So we tweeted him thusly:

 

 

We have yet to hear back from the redoubtable Mr. Smee, but we hasten to point out that his Twitter feed conspicuously features the New York Times review of his book, The Art of Rivalry.

 

 

Not Michael Upchurch’s Boston Globe review.

Draw, as it were, your own conclusions.

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Is Sebastian Smee Jumping to the New York Times?

June 14, 2017

As the hardreading staff perused our costly print version of the New York Times yesterday, we came across this piece on Page One of the Arts section.

Wait – is that the byline of the Hub’s own Sebastian Smee, Boston Globe Pulitzer Prize-winning art critic?

Indeed it is.

Which got us to wondering: 1) where in the world is Sebastian Smee, given that his last byline in the Globe was back in December; and 2) has he abandoned Boston for the Big Town.

Smee’s Twitter profile seems to answer both questions.

 

 

Regardless, we’ve tweeted the redoubtable Mr. Smee to ask if he has permanently fallen under the spell of the Good Grey Lady.

We will, as always, keep you posted.

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Friends of Jack Connors Unfriendly to Boston Herald

June 12, 2017

Saturday night marked the 10th annual Beach Ball to benefit Camp Harbor View, a pet project of Boston macher Jack Connors.

Yesterday’s local dailies, however, featured very different versions of the shindig.

Start with this full-page ad that friends of Jack ran in the stately local broadsheet.

 

 

Oddly, there was no actual coverage of the Beach Ball in the Boston Sunday Globe.

Crosstown at the Boston Herald, there was of course no such ad-ulation from the FOJs. But there was this coverage of the event by the ubiquitous Erica Corsano.

 

 

(To be fair graf goes here)

To be fair, today’s Globe does have this day-late-nine-million-dollars-short item in the Names column.

That’s a lotta jack, eh?

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Boston.com(merce) Shmushes Advertising & Editorial

June 7, 2017

From our State of the Cuisinart Marketing desk

In response to the hardreading staff’s post the other day about the Boston Herald auctioning off its editorial content to advertisers (and in the process conscripting its freelance writers into some sort of lend-lease program), splendid reader MM sent us this.

 

 

The Boston.com article in question: 

15 can’t-miss concerts in Boston this June

From Kiss Concert to Dead & Company, Hall & Oates to Megadeth.

An annual summer pop staple and pioneering jam band at Fenway are just two great music events hitting Boston in June.

Guitar gods

Rodrigo Y Gabriela
Flamenco guitar duo Rodrigo y Gabriela is celebrating 10 years of performing together with a U.S. tour that will stop in Boston. The Mexico City natives are acoustic guitar virtuosos, and bring intricate soloing and and an unrivaled dynamic to a genre that’s not often given the spotlight. The two have collaborated with many famous composers and have even performed at the White House for President Barack Obama. (Tuesday, June 6 at 7 p.m.; House of Blues; $39.50-$59.50; all ages; tickets available here)

 

And etc. – for 14 more events.

Every tickets available here links to a ticket-buying site such as the House of Blues or MLB.com or AXS.com.

And what MM points out as “the italicized line at the end”?

Boston.com will receive payment if a purchase is made through the article.

 

As MM notes, that might be the first such partnership for Boston.com, but it’s emblematic of the monetizing efforts newspaper companies like Boston Globe Media are scrambling to initiate as they battle dwindling circulation numbers and plummeting ad revenues.

(The New York Times Co. has been the hands-down leader in this mash for cash, as our kissin’ cousins at Campaign Outsider have dutifully chronicled.)

But Globe Media has been ramping up the money chase as well. In addition to the Boston.commerce gambit, there’s the Globe Live storytelling event last month, the ongoing Boston Globe Travel Show, and who knows what else to come.

(To be sure graf goes here.)

To be sure, the hardrooting staff is all for anything that keeps newspapers alive and well – and keeps the separation between advertising and editorial alive and well at the same time.

‘Nuf sed.

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Boston Herald Auctions Off Editorial to Advertisers

June 1, 2017

Stop the presses! The Boston Herald has gone native again!

As the hardtsking staff has previously noted, the sneaky local tabloid has occasionally dabbled in native advertising in its print edition, but now the ads in sheep’s clothing seem to be appearing with greater frequency.

Last week there was this full-page marketing massage “presented by Primark.”

Today there’s this puffery, “presented by The Lawn on D powered by Citizens Bank” – a twofer.

Both writers – Brett Milano and Miriam Schwartz – appear to be freelancers, although a piece she wrote last year referred to her as “the Herald’s Miriam Schwartz.” (Both, interestingly, also share the link bostonherald.com/users – which sort of feels backward given what the stingy local tabloid pays for freelance work.)

Anyway, that’s not as egregious as using staff reporters to produce advertising content, but even so . . .

C’mon, Heraldniks – at least have to decency to get actual copywriters to produce this stuff.

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Boston Globe Still Won’t Disclose Total Wine Intere$t

June 1, 2017

As the hardreading staff noted earlier this week, the Boston Globe is raking in ad revenue from Total Wine & More while also reporting on the disruptive liquor retailer’s attempts to change state alcohol rules nationwide.

But the Globe has at the same time failed to acknowledge its financial relationship with Total Wine, which has spent tens of thousands of dollars on advertising in the $tately local broadsheet.

Latest example: Yesterday’s Page One piece on the pushback to relaxing alcohol regulations. Buried in the final grafs was this:

Businesses, meanwhile, are prepared to spend handsomely to push measures that benefit them. The Total Wine & More chain, for example, just launched a large public relations campaign urging the task force and the Legislature to allow alcohol retailers to issue coupons and loyalty cards.

 

At that point you’d think the Globe might mention this ad that ran three pages later.

 

 

But no.

Then again, not everyone finds the Globe’s non-disclosure problematic. After our initial post, the redoubtable Dan Kennedy sent us this message.

 

 

We yield to no man in our respect for Mr. Media Nation, but . . .

 

 

One final note: Before you pooh-pooh the hardtsking staff, consider the Globe’s totally egregious pom-pom reporting of the recent Citgo sign rumpus, during which the paper raked in easily a hundred thousand dollars in feel-good ads for the Kenmore Square icon without disclosing its financial interest in the matter.

But no matter?

Respectfully, we think not.

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