April 10, 2018
Full disclosure: The hardreading staff normally doesn’t pay attention to Major League baseball until the Fourth of July because, well, the Stanley Cup playoffs.
But we felt it was our duty to point out that the Boston Herald is – less than a dozen games into the season – listing the MLB standings thusly.
Wild Card Games Behind? Before the Boston Public Garden’s swan boats have even hit the water? (That will be this Saturday.)
Get outta town.
By contrast, here’s the Boston Globe’s downright rational standings format.
Earth to Heraldniks: What the hell?
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Uncategorized | Tagged: American League Standings, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Public Garden, MLB, National League Standings, Stanley Cup, swan boats, wild card race | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 9, 2018
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
It seems that Mistah Mayah has been following our kissin’ cousins at One-Daily Town, given that this City of Boston ad appears in today’s Boston Globe but not the Boston Herald.
That’s the hat trick for Walsh: He also snubbed the thirsty local tabloid the past two years.
Whatsamatta, Marty – coverage in the Herald not fawning enough for you?
Show some class, man.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #OneBostonDay, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Elizabeth Warren, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Marty Walsh, Mistah Mayah, One-Daily Town, thirsty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
April 5, 2018
As the hardreading staff relentlessly chronicled, the Boston Globe’s Pulitzer-Prize winning art critic Sebastian Smee decamped to the Washington Post last fall, finally landing on the job in early January. Right before that, the Globe posted this ad on multiple media outlets, including ZipRecruiter.
The ad doesn’t specify compensation, but according to the website Glassdoor, “the typical The Boston Globe Art Critic salary is $124,353 . . . based upon 4 The Boston Globe Art Critic salary report(s) provided by employees or estimated based upon statistical methods.”
Nice neighborhood.
(To be sure graf goes here)
To be sure, three months isn’t an overlong time when you’re looking for a six-figure art maven, but the Globeniks might want to step on it a bit, given that the Boston Museum of Fine Arts awarded this scoop to the New York Times rather than the stately local broadsheet, as our kissin’ cousins at Campaign Outsider noted yesterday.
Cracking a Cold Case
The F.B.I. extracts DNA from a severed head to help a Boston museum identify a 4,000-year-old Egyptian mummy.
In 1915, a team of American archaeologists excavating the ancient Egyptian necropolis of Deir el-Bersha blasted into a hidden tomb. Inside the cramped limestone chamber, they were greeted by a gruesome sight: a mummy’s severed head perched on a cedar coffin.
The room, which the researchers labeled Tomb 10A, was the final resting place for a governor named Djehutynakht (pronounced “juh-HOO-tuh-knocked”) and his wife . . .
The archaeologists went on to recover painted coffins and wooden figurines that survived the raid and sent them to the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston in 1921. Most of the collection stayed in storage until 2009 when the museum exhibited them. Though the torso remained in Egypt, the decapitated head became the star of the showcase. With its painted-on eyebrows, somber expression and wavy brown hair peeking through its tattered bandages, the mummy’s noggin brought viewers face-to-face with a mystery.
Namely, his head or hers?
What’s less of a mystery, of course, is why the MFA would have shipped the story out of town.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: @FortPointer, Boston Globe, Boston Globe Art Critic, Boston Museum of Fine Arts, Campaign Outsider, Djehutynakht, F.B.I., Glassdoor, MFA, mummy DNA, New York Times, Nicholas St. Fleur, Opening of the Mouth Ceremony, Philip Kennicott, Sebastian Smee, The Art of Rivalry, The FlatsOnD Apartments Daily, Washingtn Post, Washington Post | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 29, 2018
Today’s edition of the feisty local tabloid features its Red Sox 2018 Season Preview in advance of this afternoon’s Opening Day game in Tampa Bay.
The good news? Steve Buckley’s There’s still time for David Price to become beloved in Boston.
The bad news? NECN’s Fire Reported at Tropicana Field Ahead of Red Sox Opener.
The ad news? The thirsty local tabloid actually has a bunch of full-page ads in the special section. But oddly, 10 out of 11 are for auto dealerships. This is the other one ($99 for those of you keeping score at home).
Even odder, these are the only two ads that ran in Sunday’s Boston Globe Coming of Age season preview, one of which is a house ad.
In today’s edition Globe scribe Dan Shaughnessy asks, Are fans ready to embrace the Sox?
You tell us, but advertisers sure as hell don’t seem to be.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Coming of Age, Dan Shaughnessy, David Price, NECN, Red Sox, Red Sox 2018 Season Preview, Steve Buckley, Tropicana Field | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 26, 2018
From our Local Dailies DisADvantage desk
First, disclosure: The hardreading staff has been a New York Giants fan since the days the team was called the New York Football Giants. (Don’t bother sending any abusive comments, splendid readers. Being a Giants fan is punishment enough itself.)
So we’re quite happy that former New England Patriot left tackle Nate Solder is Big Town bound, even at the cost of $62 million over four years, with $35 million guaranteed.
Solder’s feelings about leaving town, however, are mixed, as he mentioned in this full-page ad in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald there was . . . nothing.
Note to Nate: Some denizens of Patriot Nation actually read the Herald. Apparently you won’t miss them – except with your ad dollars. Maybe Herald scribe Karen Guregian should take back the respectful sendoff she gave you yesterday.
Plenty left still to tackle
Solder loss leaves hole, concerns
The Patriots have a question mark in a place no team wants a question mark. They’re below par in the one position they can’t afford to be, especially with Tom Brady the linchpin to their success.
Uncertainty with Brady’s blind side protector? That’s not been a major storyline heading into a season for quite some time. Left tackle has been a strength for nearly two decades, from Matt Light to Nate Solder.
For the Herald, advertisers present a different kind of blind side: They don’t even see the thirsty local tabloid.
New slogan for the paper: Ad loss leaves hole, concerns.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Karen Guregian, Local Dailies DisADvantage, Nate Solder, New England Patriots, New York Football Giants, thirsty local tabloid, Tom Brady | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 22, 2018
Umpteenth in our never-ending series
On numerous occasions the hardreading staff has referred to a Boston Herald subscription as Biggest. Waste. Ever.
And now we’re back.
Page 3 of today’s selfie local tabloid is entirely devoted to this piece bylined “Herald Staff,” the designation routinely employed in passing off press releases as actual news.
Herald moves print production to Providence Journal
The Boston Herald is now being printed in Providence, which means our loyal customers can look forward to a more reader-friendly paper.
Beginning this week, the Herald is being printed at the The Providence Journal’s flexographic newspaper printing facility, which was North America’s first entirely flexographic printing facility when it opened in 1987. The Journal selected the flexo process because it creates a paper with vibrant color reproduction and uses an environmentally friendly, water-based ink that won’t have the paper rubbing off on your hands.
More reader-friendly?
Here’s what this reader got on today’s Scoreboard pages.
The redoubtable Dan Kennedy at Media Nation called this one several days ago: “I’m hearing reports from inside the Herald that the switch will require deadlines so early that evening sports stories may not make the print edition.”
Bingo.
(To be sure graf goes here)
To be sure, the Herald at times gave readers the same short shrift when the Boston Globe printed it.
(Two be sure graf goes here)
Also to be sure, the e-Edition of the spotty local tabloid did have yesterday’s results.
But we’re shelling out good money for the print edition while getting less news for the buck all the time.
So, Heraldniks, we say this as you celebrate your new printing setup: Not a providential beginning. Not by a long shot.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Biggest. Waste. Ever., Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dan Kennedy, GateHouse Media, home subscription, I’m hearing reports from inside the Herald that the switch will require deadlines so early that evening sports stories may not make the print edition., Media Nation, One-Daily Town, Providence Journal, selfie local tabloid, spotty local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
March 12, 2018
As the hardreading staff dolefully noted over the past few years, the Boston Globe’s editorial content has increasingly been playing footsie with marketing partners ranging from Suffolk University to Steward Health Care System to Rockland Trust to the Star Wars franchise.
Now comes Cross Insurance to “present” this page in yesterday’s Boston Sunday Globe Arts section.
(To be sure graf goes here)
To be sure, the hardreading staff has seen no Cross Insurance tit-for-tad in the $tately local broadsheet. But there is this sponsored content produced by BG BrandLab, the Globe’s in-house shop for producing ads in sheep’s clothing.
Yes yes – we’re aware that a disclosure line sits atop the website, albeit as inconspicuously as possible.
And if you click on the Information doohickey, this drops down.
Raise your hand if you ever click on that doohickey. Yeah, us neither.
Regardless of the level of transparency, we’re just uneasy overall about attaching financial interests to editorial content.
Never the twain should meet, right?
Or are we just hopelessly out of date?
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: $tately local broadsheet, ads in sheep's clothing, BG BrandLab, Boston Globe, Cross Insurance, Rockland Trust, Star Wars, Steward Health Care System, Suffolk University, tit-for-tad | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 15, 2018
For the past several months, the Boston Globe has been playing catch-up to the Herald in covering the sale of the feisty local tabloid.
Today the Globe caught up.
Under the unusual byline “Globe Staff,” the stately local broadsheet reported the details of yesterday’s bake sale.
Bidding for Herald jumped by millions at auction
Digital First Media is poised to become the new owner of the Boston Herald after besting competitors with multiple higher bids during a bankruptcy auction Tuesday that netted nearly $12 million, according to newly filed court documents.
A transcript of the auction held in the office of Herald law firm Brown Rudnick revealed that Digital First opened with a bid valued at around $7.6 million — higher than the offers already in place from two other competitors, GateHouse Media and Revolution Capital Group.
After GateHouse countered Digital First with a slightly higher offer, Revolution Capital dropped out, leaving the two competitors to trade bids several times until Digital First’s final offer proved too rich for GateHouse, according to a transcript of the auction filed with bankruptcy court in Delaware.
And Digital’s final offer? “The Denver-based company, which owns daily and weekly newspapers in Colorado, California, Massachusetts, and several other states, prevailed with a final offer of $9.6 million in cash, $1 million in accrued paid time off to employees, and another $1.4 million in assumed liabilities.”
Crosstown at the Herald, reporter Brian Dowling didn’t have those numbers, but he did spotlight what exactly that breakdown means.
This year, the pension, severance and retirement payments to employees were estimated to reach $3.5 million, according to court papers. The pension, severance and retirement accounts had accrued nearly $25 million in liabilities when the company filed for bankruptcy.
Obviously $2.4 million isn’t gonna put much of a dent in that. Dowling also reported that Boston Mayor Marty Walsh is “urging Herald ownership to strike a deal to save workers’ pensions.”
All due respect, Mistah Mayah, the corn is off the cob – unless the bankruptcy judge steps in to change the deal. We’ll find out tomorrow.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Brown Rudnick, Digital First Media, GateHouse Media, Herald auction, Marty Walsh, Pat Purcell, Revolution Capital Group, stately local broadsheet | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 14, 2018
Eat your heart out, Mort Zuckerman.
Back in September, the real estate magnate sold the legendary New York Daily News to Tronc (rhymes with bonk) for exactly $1 – 50¢ less than the price of the paper’s Sunday edition.
(To be fair graf goes here)
To be fair, Tronc did assume $30 million in operational and pension liabilities, but hey – a dollar’s a dollar, yeah?
Boston Herald owner Pat Purcell, on the other hand, scooped up a helluva lot more in yesterday’s bake sale of the shaky local tabloid.
From Brian Dowling’s piece in today’s edition of the soldy local tabloid:
Digital First Media enters $11.9M top bid for Boston Herald
Digital First Media won the Boston Herald in a 5-hour bankruptcy auction with a top $11.9 million bid that all but settles who will carry the news organization into the next chapter of the city’s media history.
The newspaper company, which operates as Media News Group and owns hundreds of publications across the country, including the Denver Post, bested two other suitors — GateHouse Media and Revolution Capital. Digital First also owns the Lowell Sun and the Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise in Massachusetts.
But that doesn’t mean it’s all roses and lollipops at Fargo Street. As the Boston Globe’s Jon Chesto reports, Digital First Media “has earned a reputation for relentless cost-cutting” – not a good omen for the Herald rank and file.
And, as our kissin’ cousins at One-Daily Town recently noted, Digital First just ditched the Sentinel & Enterprise’s brick-and-mortar home for a “virtual newsroom.”
So maybe you Heraldniks might want to bring some of your personal items home.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Brian Dowling, Denver Post, Digital First Media, Fitchburg Sentinel & Enterprise, GateHouse Media, Jon Chesto, Lowell Sun, Mort Zuckerman, New York Daily News, One-Daily Town, Pat Purcell, Revolution Capital Group, soldy local tabloid, Tronc | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 6, 2018
From our Late to the Party Pooper desk
Despite the Boston Globe’s delivery discombobulation yesterday, the hardreading staff was nonetheless remiss in failing to point out this ad in the lately local broadsheet’s Sports section.
Uh-huh.
Oddly enough, #DontCrackUnderPressure contained exactly zero tweets about Brady’s, well, cracking in Super Bowl LII.
Which says something about either 1) the effectiveness of Tom Brady’s PR machine, or 2) the lack of effectiveness of newspaper ads.
Or maybe both.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #DontCrackUnderPressure, Boston Globe, lately local broadsheet, New England Patriots, Super Bowl LII, TAG Heuer, Tom Brady | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 