Seems the hardreading staff spoke too soon when we reported earlier that the Boston Globe had straightened out its production snafus in the Movie Directory pages. We foolishly relied on the Globe’s ePaper for our images instead of the dead-tree edition, in which the pages look like this (photos courtesy of the Missus):
Just like yesterday. Except today’s an even bigger moviegoing day.
National Amusements, presumably, remains unamused.
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New trend in newspapers (via Politico):
WE LOVE THAT THE THANKSGIVING PAPERS remain pleasantly plump. The (Portland) Oregonian in our driveway had 46 inserts, including a 60-page Macy’s monster with inserts within the insert.
WHAT WE DON’T LOVE: The new, Scrooge-like practice of charging home-delivery subscribers MORE for the paper BECAUSE it’s fat with ads (“added value”), and therefore more lucrative for the publisher. Jim Romenesko posted the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s note to its EZ Pay subscribers: “Because of its large size (last year’s was 5 pounds), the Thanksgiving Day newspaper is the most expensive to produce and difficult to distribute. … Effective this year, we will charge a premium rate of $2.35 for the Thanksgiving Day newspaper. This charge will be debited to your newspaper account … Our Christmas Day holiday edition will be packed with after-holiday savings from your favorite retailers. … [W]e will charge a premium rate of $1.50.”
Here’s the Romenesko post (from November 7).
Some newspapers, though, are only going halfway with the gambit.
WE’RE FINE WITH charging more for today’s fat issue at the newsstand, which a bunch of papers are doing: The WashPost imposed Sunday rates ($2.50 instead of $1.25); The Boston Globe is the Sunday price of $3.50, up from the daily $1.25. L.A. Times is $2, up from the usual $1.50. Regular prices: Chicago Tribune at $1.50; Newsday (Long Island) at $1.25.
From today’s Globe:
What about Newsstand Nation – you fine with that?
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Posted by Campaign Outsider
The Boston Globe’s art department has some ‘splaining to do after these Movie Directory pages ran in the stately local broadsheet’s G Section yesterday.
For those of you keeping score at home, here are the whateverplexes that got blanked.
Dedham:
Foxboro:
Lawrence:
Lowell:
National Amusements, presumably, was not amused.
Especially on the moviegoing day before Thanksgiving.
File under: Not giving thanks.
P.S. All better today.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, G Section, Legacy Place, Movie Directory, National Amusements, Patriot Place, Showcase Cinema de Lux, Showcase Cinemas Lawrence, Showcase Cinemas Lowell, Thanksgiving | Permalink
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Yesterday the hardreading staff chronicled the Great Boston Official Tree Lighting Snub delivered to the Herald by Boston Mayor Tom Menino. Of course we fully expected a makeup in today’s edition of the frosted local tabloid. And there it is, smack dab on Page 15.
So now the Globe and Herald are even.
Until next ad.
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Back page of today’s Boston Globe A section:
See that down at the bottom? The media sponsors?
So you’d think the ad ran in the Boston Herald today too, right?
Wrong.
Then again, we’re guessing the mayor’s people have either a) gotten an earful from the Heraldniks, or b) already reserved a full page in tomorrow’s edition of the frosty local tabloid.
Season’s Gratings!
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston's Official Tree Lighting, Magic 106.7, Tom Menino, WCVB-TV | Permalink
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Today’s Boston daily double features a rarity: The Boston Globe front-pages what should have been the Boston Herald’s Page One.
First, here’s what the feisty local tabloid actually ran:
That’s fine – gotta do the Pats when it’s Monday Night Football and Coakley’s jumping on the junkets is good (and it beat the Globe). But the Health-Connector-Is-Worse-Than-Obamacare story is thrice-told news at this point. It doesn’t really merit another front page hit.
Crosstown, the Globe’s Page One has the story the Herald should have had.
Boston police officers wary of GPS for cruisers
Fear too much scrutiny of police under city’s plan
The pending use of GPS tracking devices, slated to be installed in Boston police cruisers, has many officers worried that commanders will monitor their every move while supervisors insist the system will improve their response to emergencies.
The change, a result of contract negotiations between the city and the patrol officers union, puts Boston in league with small-town departments across the state and big-city agencies across the country that have installed global positioning systems in cruisers.
Boston police administrators say the system gives dispatchers the ability to see where officers are, rather than wait for a radio response. Using GPS, they say, accelerates their response to a call for a shooting or an armed robbery.
Just think how that translates to the Herald’s front page, all donuts and dozing off. Can’t you see it?
Well, there’s always tomorrow.
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The feisty local tabloid’s real-estate crusade continues today, with two full pages dedicated to ripping the lid off Mayor Tom Menino and his Boston Redevelopment Authority marionettes.
Of special note is this whack at one BRA member in particular (if you guessed that he has union ties, vote yourself a special treat).
BRA defends decision to OK Monahan vote
Mayor Thomas M. Menino’s newest appointee to the BRA board failed to recuse himself when the panel voted to approve a massive downtown development project largely funded by his union’s national pension fund.
Boston Redevelopment Authority officials yesterday defended union boss Michael Monahan’s vote to OK the Government Center Garage development plan,
which won unanimous approval at the board’s Thursday meeting.
Monahan is the business manager of the 7,000-member International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 103 and a trustee of its pension fund, one of the largest contributors to the National Electrical Benefit Fund. The national fund is a big financial backer of the project.
Right. More shenanigans on the development front.
And no doubt developing . . .
Postscript from our JohnHenryGlobeWatch: Today’s edition of our stately local broadsheet did cover that Yawkey Way sweetheart deal the Herald covered yesterday. So, move along, move along – no conspiracies to see here.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Redevelopment Authority, BRA, BRAmpage, JohnHenryGlobeWatch, Michael Monahan, Peter Meade, Tom Menino, Yawkey Way sweetheart deal | Permalink
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The Boston Herald is on a real-estate BRAmpage lately, starting with Wednesday’s hounding of Terrier-in-waiting Tom Menino over possible conflicts of interest between the outgoing mayor’s new gig at Boston University and the Boston Redevelopment Authority, 80% of which is appointed by the mayor.
Today the feisty local tabloid is still beating the Tom-toms.
Inside, the Herald calls the roll of tax-dodging prime downtown properties.
But wait! There’s more – a new skirmish outside Fenway Park.
BRA sued over no-bid deal with Sox on Yawkey Way
A sweetheart land and air rights deal between the Boston Redevelopment Authority and the Boston Red Sox is now being attacked in court.
Everett businessman and attorney Joseph Marchese is suing the BRA over the recent $7.3 million agreement that awarded the Red Sox air rights for Green Monster seats over Lansdowne Street and an easement to shut down part of Yawkey Way for concessions so long as the team plays at Fenway Park.
Marchese said he had approached the BRA in May with his own offer to operate concessions on Yawkey Way under a proposed $3 million, 10-year deal, but the BRA never put the rights out for public bid.
“What we’re asking the court to determine is whether or not that contract should have been put out to bid,” Marchese said. A former restaurant owner, Marchese said he wanted to partner with local businesses to offer food on Yawkey Way in a “taste of Boston” atmosphere.
Then again, the sweetheart deal is a taste of Boston, isn’t it?
Postscript from our JohnHenryGlobeWatch: Nothing about the Fenway rumpus in the Red-Sox-owner-Henry-owned Boston Globe today. No big conspiracy theory. That comes tomorrow.
2 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Boston Red Sox, Boston Redevelopment Authority, Boston University, BRA, BRAmpage, John Marchese, JohnHenryGlobeWatch, Terriers, Tom Menino, Yawkey Way | Permalink
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Among the many Battle of the Bulger subsidiaries is this one from Michael McLean, son of James J. “Buddy McLean.
Via Amazon:
The Irish King of Winter Hill: The True Story of James J. “Buddy” McLean
The Irish King of Winter Hill is the story of the rise and fall James J. “Buddy” McLean, from his humble beginnings as a hardworking
truck driver in Boston, to leading the original and now infamous Winter Hill Gang, to his untimely murder in 1965. He will best be remembered for eliminating the McLaughlin Gang from Charlestown during the 1960s McLean-McLaughlin Irish gang war. Buddy, who worked on the Boston docks in the late 1950s and early 1960s with his father’s union card, was also a teamster from Local No. 25. This was a time when gangsters ran the docks. This story is written by Michael McLean, who says, “I have read all the books and the information on the Internet about my father, and most of it is wrong. After talking to his closest friends, I decided I would set the record straight.”
And run ads in the local dailies.
From the Boston Globe:
Close-up:
From the Boston Herald:
Close-up:
Like we said: Equal-opportunity opportunist.
And we mean that in the most positive sense.
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The hardreading staff used to make our living in the ad racket, and as such we routinely attended (while Dr. Ads covered) the New England Ad Club Hatch Awards, that annual – and costly – celebration of ourselves.
Sample coverage:
No surprise we weren’t invited back for this year’s festivities, but fortunately yesterday’s Boston Globe featured a full-page ad highlighting the winners.
And the Boston Herald did not.
Just sayin’.
1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: Ad Club of New England, ad racket, Arnold, Best of Show, Boston Globe, Boston Herald, Dr. Ads, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hatch Awards, Jack Daniel's | Permalink
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It's Good to Live in a Two-Daily Town 