February 8, 2016
When the Boston Globe’s home delivery went Chernobyl last month, the lately local broadsheet promised a credit to stiffed subscribers for the papers they failed to receive.
Turns out the Globe’s definition of credit doesn’t involve actual money. Here’s management’s latest email.
Dear Subscriber,
Many of you have contacted us recently regarding credits for missed deliveries.
Missed deliveries are credited to your account by extending your “paid through” date for the appropriate number of days. To view a detailed list of your credits by date, log in to BostonGlobe.com/MyGlobe and click on Delivery Credits in the Billing section.
We apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced, or may still be experiencing, as a result of our delivery transition. We deeply appreciate your patience, and your loyalty to the Globe.
The Boston Globe Team
So instead of getting your money back, you get more papers that might or might not be delivered. Which, in turn, would extend your subscription even further.
Paging Mr. Kafka . . . paging Mr. Franz Kafka . . .
4 Comments | 
Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Franz Kafka, home delivery meltdown, lately local broadsheet, went Chernobyl | 
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 5, 2016
The weeks-long rumpus over Suffolk University president Margaret McKenna’s administration of the school came to a head – and a headline – today, as board chairman Andrew Meyer prepared to step aside while McKenna keeps her job.
Boston Herald’s Joe Battenfeld:
Sources say Suffolk University president Margaret McKenna to keep her job
In a stunning defeat for Boston’s power brokers,
Suffolk University trustees are abandoning a plan to fire President Margaret
McKenna while the board chairman steps aside in a truce to end a nasty week-long war that caused major damage to the Beacon Hill institution.
McKenna may have saved her job, but her troubles are far from over. The school still has major financial and enrollment problems and it’s not clear she has the savvy and leadership skills to lead it out of its mess.
That move, however, didn’t keep Alumni for the Integrity of Suffolk University from running this ad in today’s Boston Globe.
Check that Twitter hashtag in the ad and you get this:
Nice touch: The Suffolk ad lower right.
A press release listed these folks as the major players in the alumni group:
Jared Cain, class of 2008 & former Student Government President
Dennis Harkins, Class of 2015, Former Trustee Ambassador and Student Government Secretary
Geraldin Batista, Class of 2014, former Student Government Secretary & President of the Black Student Union
Megan Caron, Class of 2012, former Student Government President
And here’s their Letter to the Editor.
Pretty impressive alums, eh? Suffolk must be doing something right.
UPDATE: Splendid commenter Jeff sends along this postscript:
Geeze John, I’m surprised you omitted the juicy demand from the alumni group that all trustees with affiliations to Regan Communications Group step down and that – “for the sake of the institution’s integrity, that all business associations and trustee relationships with Regan Communications Group be investigated by a third party, in an effort to rectify any existent impropriety.” Talk about in your face!
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: #SaveOurSuffolk, Alumni for the Integrity of Suffolk University, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dennis Harkins, Geraldin Batista, Jared Cain, Joe Battenfeld, Megan Caron, Regan Communications Group, retiremeyer.com | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
February 4, 2016
From our One Town, Two Different Worlds desk
How odd is this?
Wednesday’s Boston dailies separately – or is that respectively? – featured two heinous murderers seeking redemption for the umpteenth time.
The Boston Globe front-paged one of them.
More pain as killer again bids for parole
NATICK — Every five years, in a hushed parole board hearing with the family he traumatized and tore apart, Richard 
Seymour apologizes to his ex-wife and daughter, and to the memory of the teenage son he beat to death in a drug-fueled rage.
And each time, his family remains unmoved, refusing to forgive him for a brutal crime that has already kept him behind bars for three decades.
On Tuesday, Seymour’s family renewed the painful ritual of arguing against his release, telling the state’s parole board they are haunted by the thought of Seymour being set free. Their grief over Patrick Seymour’s death, they said, has never left them.
You can read the gruesome details, but the bottom line is this:
The decision of the board is not expected for several months. According to the most recent study by the state’s Executive Office of Public Safety, about one-quarter of parole requests are granted for inmates serving life sentences.
This year, Patrick Seymour would have turned 48.
And this year Jeffrey Curley would have turned 29. But Charles Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari brutally murdered him in 1997. And now Jaynes, like Seymour, is looking to wiggle free of his punishment.
From Wednesday’s Boston Herald:
Child killer Jaynes seeking new trial
Charles Jaynes, the self-styled Wiccan serving life for the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 10-year-old Jeffrey Curley of Cambridge, is
imploring a panel of federal appellate justices to either grant him a new state trial or set him free, arguing the public was wrongfully barred from his first one — and that he was the victim of lousy lawyering.
A three-justice panel that includes retired U.S.
Supreme Court Justice David Souter took Jaynes’ appeal under advisement yesterday as Jeffrey’s father Robert Curley endured yet another court hearing, 19 years after his son was kidnapped and killed by Jaynes and Salvatore Sicari, his body dumped in a river in Maine.
It’s heartbreaking what these families have to endure in the wake of their unimaginable tragedies.
It’s also the American justice system.
Your objections go here.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Charles Jaynes, David Souter, Executive Office of Public Safety, Jeffrey Curley, One Town Two Different Worlds, Patrick Seymour, Paula Todisco, Regina Marsh, Richard Seymour, Robert Curley, Salvatore Sicari | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 31, 2016
Ever since the Boston Globe dumped the Tank McNamara comic strip from its Scoreboard page last year (a move the hardreading staff roundly denounced), the hately local broadsheet has been shrinking its agate-type offerings at an alarming rate.
Exhibit Umpteen: Saturday’s edition of the Globe, specifically the top of the Scoreboard page.
Look at all those college basketball games. Then look at the anemic Latest line.
That’s just sad.
Crosstown at the Boston Herald, meanwhile, there was this:
And that’s just the half of it. Literally.
Today’s editions bring more of the same. Globe Sports:
Herald Sports:
Hey, Globeniks: Get your sports guys in line, eh?
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, hately local broadsheet, Scoreboard, Tank McNamara | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 29, 2016
First in what we think might be a long-running series
Did the Boston Globe just reprint a Delaware North/Boston Properties press release?
From yesterday’s mately local broadsheet:
Close-up of the un-bylined piece:
Text from the “Globe Staff”:
Boston Properties and Delaware North Wednesday officially launched construction of a massive new complex on Causeway Street in front of TD Garden and North Station. Dubbed, “The Hub on Causeway,” the first phase of the complex underway will include a new grocery store from Star Market, a 15-screen movie theater from ArcLight Cinema, office space, and underground parking.
The first phase is to open in late 2018.
Additional phases would bring a 38-story residential tower, and two shorter towers for offices and a hotel.
The developers are also building a new entrance to North Station as well as an underground connection between the train and subway stations.
Sure sounds like a press release to us.
That reminded the hardstashing staff of a post we uncharacteristically held off publishing several weeks ago:
When its home delivery isn’t going Chernobyl, the Boston Globe has been all about advertising partnerships lately. So you’ll excuse us if we wonder about this piece in [the January 3rd] Address section of the $tately local broadsheet.
Up close:
The hardcounting staff tallies the plugs (and potential advertisers) thusly:
Heidi Pribell/Pribell Interiors: 5
Medusa Studio: 1
Visual Comfort: 1
Osborne and Little: 1
Oly: 1
Global Views: 1
Bernhardt: 1
Ballard Designs: 1
Maybe nothing will come of this. Maybe something will. We’ll keep an eye out.
[Full disclosure: In truth, we’ve been less than vigilant in tracking the potential advertisers above. We’ll try to do better in the future.]
But Delaware North/Boston Properties?
That’s a done deal.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: $tately local broadsheet, Address, Ballard Designs, Bernhardt, Boston Globe, Boston Properties, Delaware North, Global Views, hardstashing staff, Heidi Pribell, mately local broadsheet, Medusa Studio, Oly, Osborne and Little, Pribell Interiors, Rockland Trust, Suffolk University, UMass, Visual Comfort | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 28, 2016
From our Late to the Bridge Party desk
The headscratching staff freely admits we’re confused: Is Boston’s venerable Northern Avenue Bridge slated for a $100 million fix or a $100 million replacement?
Or are they the same?
From yesterday’s Jordan Graham/Owen Boss piece in the Boston Herald:
Public shock unlikely to derail GE deal
Critics blast tax breaks
Massive tax breaks that helped bring General Electric’s world headquarters to the Hub are being blasted by critics for creating too sweet a deal for the global conglomerate — but don’t expect a public movement like the one that derailed the Boston 2024 Olympic bid to sidetrack the relocation.
In exchange for agreeing to move its global headquarters to the booming Seaport District, GE will get $145 million in grants and tax breaks from the city and state. But under the agreement, Boston will also pay up to $100 million to fix the dilapidated Northern Avenue Bridge . . .
Then again, there’s Shirley Leung’s column in yesterday’s Boston Globe.
Out with the old, Lynch says
The Northern Avenue Bridge could soon fall down, and US Representative Stephen Lynch is ready to release $9.4 
million in federal funding to help design a new one.
The city will need to match a portion of the money, but Lynch has been waiting more than a decade for Boston to do something about the century-old span. Last week, officials said they plan to start removing the dilapidated bridge in March after the Coast Guard raised concerns that it might tumble into the Fort Point Channel.
But here’s the headscratching part:
The Walsh administration will begin a formal public process this spring to decide whether to rehab the bridge or build a new one. The city has to do something after committing up to $100 million to replace the link as part of its agreement to woo General Electric Co.’s world headquarters to Boston.
Except the Herald says the commitment is to fix the link, not replace it.
So, to recap:
The local dailies agree that the Northern Avenue Bridge is dilapidated.
But, as Leung might say, will the state fix it or nix it?
You tell us.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Fort Point Channel, headscratching staff, Jordan Graham, Mr. Fix It, Mr. Nix It, Northern Avenue Bridge, Owen Boss, Shirley Leung, Stephen Lynch | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 26, 2016
But Boston Herald readers might.
At least that’s the assumption of Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, the Globe’s once and current distributor. For the past few days, PCF has run this ad in the drivey local tabloid.
The details:
But, as the hardreading staff has noted, “Before anyone jumps at this excellent opportunity . . . he might do well to check out Aviva Chomsky’s In These Times piece about the whole Globe delivery meltdown and the havoc new distributor ACI Media has wreaked on local drivers. In addition to all the ACI mishegoss, there’s this collateral damage: ‘[T]hose who were kept on by PCF are also faced with longer routes to deliver the same number of papers, because of the Globe’s decision.'”
Meanwhile, Globe readers still see this on the lately local broadsheet’s website.
Apparently, PCF = Pretty Compromised Fulfillment.
Ouch.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: ACI Media, Aviva Chomsky, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, drivey local tabloid, In These Times, lately local broadsheet, PCF, Pretty Compromised Fulfillment, Publishers Circulation Fulfillment | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 23, 2016
Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, the Boston Globe’s off-again on-again demi-distributor, is looking for a few good drivers . . . in the Boston Herald.
From today’s edition of the drivey local tabloid:
Details here:
Before anyone jumps at this excellent opportunity, though, he might do well to check out Aviva Chomsky’s In These Times piece about the whole Globe delivery meltdown and the havoc new distributor ACI Media has wreaked on local drivers. In addition to all the ACI mishegoss, there’s this collateral damage:
[T]hose who were kept on by PCF are also faced with longer routes to deliver the same number of papers, because of the Globe’s decision.
Caveat drivers, eh?
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: ACI Media, Aviva Chomsky, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, delivery service providers, drivey local tabloid, DSPs, In These Times, PCF, Publishers Circulation Fulfillment | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 22, 2016
The Great Editorial Bake Sale proceeds apace at the Boston Globe.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, the $tately local broadsheet is the NASCAR of newsprint, with logos peppered on it every which way. Take, for the latest example, today’s edition of Capital, starting Page One upper left.
That’s bookended by the strip across the bottom of the page.
And echoed in this page 3 ad.
Moving on, we have James Pindell’s Ground Game, brought to you by Steward.
Not coincidentally, Steward Health Care System also bought the back page.
Last, and sort of least, the Globe mortgaged its Politics Cafe to Capital One, a natural fit for this particular section..
So to recap: There are now a myriad of ways to use the pages of the Boston Globe to plug your products or services. Nothing especially egregious in most of the above, except allowing Steward to attach itself to editorial content. That’s a slippery slope the mately local broadsheet really should stay off.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: bake sale, Boston Globe, Capital, Capital One, Great Editorial Bake Sale, Ground Game, James Pindell, mately local broadsheet, NASCAR of newsprint, Politics Cafe, Steward Health Care System, Suffolk Solutions, Suffolk University | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
January 21, 2016
Excellent compare ‘n’ contrast material in today’s Boston papers. Let’s start with the jokes, shall we?
Boston Herald’s Jerry Holbert:
Boston Globe’s Dan Wasserman:
That pretty well sums up the one-and-a-half sides of Sarah Palin, wouldn’t you say?
Then there’s Patriots Darius Fleming’s dramatic, window-shattering rescue of a woman trapped in a car after a three-vehicle crash on Route 1 in Walpole last week. Story in the Herald:
Hero Pat scolds trolls
Cops, witnesses confirm rescue
The New England Patriots player who police said did the right thing by rescuing a woman trapped in a car took to Twitter late yesterday to condemn all the haters who doubted his good deed.
The Globe had quite a different story.
Fleming hailed as hero
Patriot LB aided woman in crash
FOXBOROUGH — Heroes don’t always wear capes — sometimes they wear football uniforms.
Patriots backup linebacker Darius Fleming played in Saturday’s playoff victory over the Chiefs with 22 stitches in his right calf, two days after cutting his leg after he kicked out the window of a car to assist a woman who had just gotten into a three-car accident on Route 1, near Gillette Stadium.
“Obviously he had no regards for himself. Just wanted to get the girl out,” said eyewitness Stephanie Kube. “Came in, saved the day and left. A true hero.”
Not a word about the trolls.
Nor did the lately local broadsheet have a word about racial tensions at Boston Latin School, which was Page One in the Herald.
The story:
Black students raise race issues
Group calls out Boston Latin officials
Black students at Boston Latin, the nation’s oldest, most prestigious public school, set off a social media firestorm this week, accusing the elite exam school of ignoring the casual use of racial slurs and offensive online taunts.
In a YouTube video posted Monday, two students representing a group called Black Leaders Advocating for Change and Knowledge said the school has turned a deaf ear to their concerns about classmates’ racial slights.
“We are here to make our voices heard, to show BLS administration and everyone that we refuse to be silenced and we’re not afraid to speak up,” the students say in the video. “We’re here to use this campaign to unite our community, to unite the community of black alumni and the students of color at BLS and schools like it.”
Examples from the tweetly local tabloid:
We’ll see if there’s Change and Knowledge on Morrissey Boulevard anytime soon.
Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: #blackatbls, BLACK, Black Leaders Advocating for Change and Knowledge, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Latin School, Dan Wasserman, Darius Fleming, Jerry Holbert, lately local broadsheet, Morrissey Boulevard, New England Patriots, tweetly local tabloid | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider
It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 