Ask John Henry: Seriously? Boston Globe Publisher?

January 31, 2014

UnknownThe John Henry Era at the Boston Globe is off to a, well, Henryesque start (see also John Henry Red Sox and John Henry Liverpool).

Yesterday’s press release from the stately local broadsheet:

JOHN HENRY ASSUMES ROLE OF BOSTON GLOBE PUBLISHER; MIKE SHEEHAN APPOINTED GLOBE CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

Boston (Jan. 30, 2014) – John Henry Jr., owner of The Boston Globe, will assume the additional title of publisher and Mike Sheehan, the former Hill Holliday chief executive who has been consulting at the Globe, will become Chief Executive Officer, it was announced today. Sheehan will oversee all day-to-day business operations at the Globe while Henry concentrates on strategy

In October 2013, Henry purchased The Boston Globe and its websites, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and its website, and Globe Direct, a direct mail operation. With the purchase, he became the third owner in the 141-year history of the Globe. Today, he becomes the ninth publisher.

“My main role as publisher is to ensure that the Globe has the right management and that management has the resources to accomplish its mission,” Henry said.

 

Uh-huh. 

Then there’s this:

Sheehan, 53, joined the Globe earlier this month as a consultant to help improve advertising sales. As CEO, he will oversee the business side of The Boston Globe.

 

So, to recap:

The Globe’s owner is the paper’s publisher and an adman is its CEO.

Not good news for Globe readers.

Not good at all.

 

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What Can the Globe Do for Brown?

January 30, 2014

Bury the lede, mostly.

From today’s Page One:

 

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From Metro page 2:

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-30 at 12.43.54 PM

 

Hmmmmm.

 

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It’s Good to Live in a Two-Guinness Town

January 30, 2014

From our Late to the Drinking Party desk

The local dailies were on rare equal footing in the ad department yesterday, as both ran the same full-page Guinness advertisement.

Boston Globe, page 9:

 

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Boston Herald, page 3:

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-30 at 12.25.37 AM

 

There’s also a companion TV spot that’s a total knockout.

 

 

Except it will no longer appear on TV because “U.S. Olympic Committee rules generally ban marketers who are not official sponsors from featuring Olympic competitors . . .  This year’s ad blackout runs from Jan. 30 to Feb. 26,” according to The Drum.

Our loss.

Whose gain?

The Five-Ring Circus.

 

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For Once, Boston Globe at a DisADvantage

January 27, 2014

As the hard reading staff has noted on numerous occasions, it’s normally the Boston Herald that gets shortchanged in the full-page-ad department, especially in terms of advocacy ads.

But not today.

Page 11:

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-27 at 11.47.58 AM

 

The outfit that funded the ad, Alzheimer’s Impact Movement, describes itself as “a nonpartisan, nonprofit advocacy organization working in strategic partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association to make Alzheimer’s disease a national priority.”

And Ed Markey? He’s co-chair of the Congressional Task Force on Alzheimer’s Disease. So good idea to suck up to him, although not sure why the Herald is the place to do it.

Regardless, here’s another thing today’s Herald has that the Globe doesn’t: coverage of Chet Curtis’s wake yesterday.

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-27 at 11.48.41 AM

 

Nice coverage, unfortunate photos.

Finally, the Herald has also cornered the market on Romney Redux reporting, with the normally level-headed Kimberly Atkins speculating that two-time presidential loser Mitt Romney might go for the hat trick.

Oy.

So the feisty local tabloid goes two-for-three today. Better than average, yes?

 

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Globe Comes Sort of Clean on ‘In the news’ Ads

January 23, 2014

As the hardreading staff noted the other day, the Boston Globe has crowbarred advertisements into its front-page In the news index.

Boston Globe Carves Out New Ad Space on Front Page

First it was the strip ad at the bottom of Page One. Now the Boston Globe has inserted advertising into its In the news index that occupies the lefthand side of the front page every day.

Monday’s Boston Globe:

Screen Shot 2014-01-21 at 12.58.18 AM

 

 

And etc.

Tuesday’s In the news was pretty much the same.

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-23 at 1.01.38 AM

 

But Wednesday’s edition had a Come-to-Jesus addition.

 

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Now, we’re under no illusion that the Globeniks pay any heed to the hardreading staff. But they would pay attention to the redoubtable Dan Kennedy of Northeastern University and Media Nation, who tweeted this on Tuesday:

 

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That, we’re thinking, might have made a difference.

Then again, here’s today’s installment:

 

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So the Globe removed “Advertisement” and added “Citizens Bank.”

Hey, Dan: Time for another tweet?

 

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Boston Globe Carves Out New Ad Space on Front Page

January 21, 2014

First it was the strip ad at the bottom of Page One. Now the Boston Globe has inserted advertising into its In the news index that occupies the lefthand side of the front page every day.

Monday’s Boston Globe:

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-21 at 12.58.18 AM

 

And the interloping ad:

 

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Yes yes – the Boston Herald also posts ads on its front page.

 

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But the Boston Sports Clubs ad is clearly set off from the Herald’s editorial content. Which the Globe’s Citizens Bank interloper clearly is not.

Paging John Henry. Paging Boston Globe owner John Henry.

 

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Car Dealer Gets Ad-itorial Package from Boston Globe

January 20, 2014

From our What a Coincidence! desk

Several weeks ago the hardworking staff over at Campaign Outsider posted an item headlined Sign o’ the Time: Everything for Sale at Newsweekly, which included this ad from the December 29 Boston Sunday Globe:

 

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Imagine our surprise, then, when we saw this in yesterday’s Boston Sunday Globe:

Seven things you should know about Ray Ciccolo

maeda_19seven_biz1

 

Over the last half century, Village Automotive Group has grown into one of the state’s largest automobile dealers, with more than 400 employees at eight locations. President Ray Ciccolo recently chatted with Globe reporter Erin Ailworth about how it all started. Here’s what she found out:

1

Ciccolo was only 24, but he already owned two coin-operated launderettes when he walked into the Gene Brown Rambler/Volvo dealership in Newton Centre looking to buy a “little, fuel efficient” Volkswagen to replace an old Buickhe had rebuilt from junkyard parts. Instead, he listened to a friend working at the dealership. Ciccolo left with a gas-guzzling Lincoln Continental — it got just three miles to the gallon — and plans to purchase the business . . .

 

And etc.

Not to get technical about it, but there are really eight things you should know about Ray Ciccolo.

We’re not saying there was any explicit pay-for-play arrangement here, but it’s hard to believe that a business editor wouldn’t know if an interview subject had run full-page ads in the paper, especially such self-aggrandizing ones. That might give the average editor pause, yes?

Well, in this case, no.

Coals to Newcastle, there’s also this on Page One of today’s Globe Score section.

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-20 at 2.23.57 PM

 

When Globe owner John Henry gave a speech to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce the other week, he talked about new sponsored sections like Score that would deliver added valued to advertisers. That led the hardreading staff to wonder what exactly Globe sponsors would get .

We’re wondering even more now.

 

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Boston Herald – Once Again – at a DisADvantage

January 17, 2014

More ad-versity for the Boston Herald: Yesterday it was bypassed by two advertisers who took out full pages in the Boston Globe.

Ad #1 (page A8):

 

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Ad #2 (page A10):

 

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Neither ran in the funky local tabloid.

That’s a problem, yeah, Heraldniks?

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Globe’s Dan Shun-nessy Is ExPatriot

January 15, 2014

Once again, Boston Globe columnist Dan Shaughnessy is the skunk at the garden party.

Today’s stink bomb:

Sorry, the Patriots are going to lose

The Broncos are going to beat the Patriots Sunday.

Sorry, that’s just the way I see it. I am not rooting for the Broncos. I am not into Satanic worship. Please do not kill my whole family. I am often wrong Screen Shot 2014-01-15 at 11.57.08 AM(remember the 2013 Red Sox, destined for last place?) and hopefully for New England fans, I will be wrong again.

The Patriots have proven folks wrong time and again. Overcoming doubters is the foundation of the Patriot franchise.

Doubting the Patriots this weekend is hardly a daring position. They are significant underdogs in Vegas. Most of the national TV panel guys will pick against New England. Some of the handicapping local car dealers will pick the Broncos. There might even be a footy-pajama fanboy or two with doubts about the Patriots’ ability to beat Peyton Manning.

So I am a doubter . . .

 

A doubter? Not in Denver, Danny Boy. There you’re a hero. You even made the homepage of the First-and-Orange BroncoBlog (look lower left).

 

Screen Shot 2014-01-15 at 11.50.41 AM

 

You don’t see the Boston Herald being fêted in the Mile High City, do ya Danno?

No.

Final word goes to Roger Bournival at Dan Shaughnessy Watch (“We read him so you don’t have to”):

For what it’s worth, Tom Brady is 10-4 in head-to-head matchups with Peyton Manning. If Shank thinks the Patriots are going to lose, that’s all I need to take the Patriots.

 

‘Nuf ced.

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It’s Mike Sheehan Day in the Herald!

January 14, 2014

Who’s the hottest guy in town? The hardreading staff votes for Mike Sheehan, who does a daily double in today’s Boston Herald.

Sheehan, the former CEO and current part-time chairman of high-octane ad agency Hill Holliday, is first Heralded here.

One Fund organized in mere hours

Menino reached out to Hub leaders day after bombings

The morning after the April 15 marathon bombings, former Mayor Thomas M. Menino started calling local business and community leaders. He told them they had seven hours to create what would become The One Fund before he announced it at 5 p.m. that night.

“There was an immediate understanding of the urgency at hand,” said James Gallagher, executive vice-president of John Hancock, at an advertising conference in Boston yesterday. “We got underway right away.”

“The number one thing we had was a deadline,” Hill Holiday Chairman Mike Sheehan said, adding he has never worked on a project with the scale or urgency of what would become The One Fund.

“It took 15 minutes to design a logo,” Sheehan said — a blue “1” on a yellow background, modeled after a marathon bib.

“Everybody knew how to do their job, and we just did it,” he said.

 

The next day, Sheehan added, they had “a pile of checks 5 feet high, wide and long.”

Since then Sheehan has been hired as a consultant by the Boston Globe to help improve advertising sales. It’s in that capacity that he does his second turn in the feisty local tabloid.

Adviser: Globe no hobby for John Henry

Former Hill Holliday CEO Mike Sheehan said yesterday his new gig as an advertising adviser to Boston Globe owner John Henry is focused on maximizing revenue, and didn’t rule out a rebranding of the broadsheet, while emphasizing Henry is treating his own Mike Sheehan, chairman of Hill Holliday Jim Gallagher, executive vice president at John Hancock Former mayor Thomas M. Meninorole as a “full-time job.”

“The Globe has a very attractive audience,” Sheehan told the Herald. “Like any media operation, they have to be vigilant about making sure their advertisers know that and that they have great opportunities to reach them.”

Sheehan said there’s no set timetable for how long he’ll be advising the broadsheet. “To be perfectly frank, I just want to help where I can help for as long as it takes to really make this place start humming,” said Sheehan, who is chairman of the Hub ad agency.

 

Of course saying the stately local broadsheet is not a Henry hobby only makes people think it is.

Clever those Heraldniks, eh?

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