Globe Omits Reading’s Racist History vs. Bill Russell

November 16, 2018

The racist elements of Reading, Mass. are at it again, as the Boston Globe’s Cristela Guerra reported on Page One yesterday.

Reading’s new struggle with an old evil

More than 30 incidents of racist, anti-Semitic graffiti have been reported since May 2017, school officials say

READING — Nearly every day, teachers at Reading Memorial High School scan their classrooms carefully, sweeping their eyes across floors and furniture — in search of swastikas.

In this school of more than 1,200 students, the Nazi symbol and other racist graffiti have become a haunting presence, surfacing again and again, defacing bathroom stalls and stairwells, scrawled on bench legs, carved into railings around the high school.

 

But the Globe piece on the “old evil” overlooked the evilest incident of racism in Reading’s history: The vile attacks on Celtics great Bill Russell when he lived there during the 1950s.

From the Globe’s own Adam Himmelsbach’s 2017 piece Why was Boston Garden nearly empty when Bill Russell’s number was retired in 1972?

After Russell joined the Celtics in 1956, he became the city’s first black star athlete. Although he emerged as a sports icon, his status made him a more visible target. His home in the mostly white suburb of Reading was once broken into and vandalized, with a racial epithet spray-painted on the walls.

 

For some reason, Himmelsbach left out the worst part: The vandals also defecated on Russell’s bed.

Memo to Boston Globe and Boston Herald editors: When covering the Reading disgrace, remember Bill Russell.


Boston Herald Performs Sex Change on Dead Actor

November 13, 2018

Well, this is one we haven’t seen before in the dotty local tabloid. (Tip o’ the pixel to the Missus.)

Today’s Boston Herald obituary of veteran actor Douglas Rain somehow turns him into a her.

 

Just to be clear:

 

(To be sure graf goes here)

To be sure, the Herald picked up this obit from the Associated Press, but the morphy local tabloid can’t blame the wire service for the sex change, because the AP doesn’t use honorifics.

The headscratching staff has no idea if the Herald has fixed this on its website, given that the Rain obit doesn’t currently appear there. But our condolences go out to his family, both for his passing and the passing strange sendoff Mr. Rain received from the Herald.


National Grid Gives Globe the Ad, Herald the Air

November 13, 2018

From our ever-expanding Local Dailies DisAdvantage desk

The four-month National Grid lockout of over 1,200 union gas workers has not only cost the state 1) millions in lost tax revenue and 2) more than $13 million in unemployment benefits according to this WCVB report, it’s also cost the company tens of thousands of dollars for this full-page ad in today’s Boston Globe.

 

 

(Gas Workers Must Be Nuts graf goes here)

Something the ad failed to note: There’s movement at the State House to “force National Grid to restore health benefits to all locked out workers until contract talks are resolved,” according to WCVB’s report. That could ratchet up the cost of the lockout for the gas company.

Something National Grid failed to note: There are two dailies in this town. Boston Herald readers also have a nickel in this quarter. Time to give the thirsty local tabloid some love, eh?


Musicians Note Mistreatment in Plea to Josh Groban

November 9, 2018

Chalk one up for the thirsty local tabloid.

The multi-talented Josh Groban is coming to town, as Isaac Feldberg’s interview with him in today’s Boston Globe informs us.

“Bridges” is a fitting title for Josh Groban’s latest album, considering how many he has crossed in recent years . . . [S]etting out on a nationwide arena tour this fall in support of “Bridges” — with Tony-winning “Wicked” star Idina Menzel opening — feels to Groban something like slipping into a familiar old suit and discovering it still fits him neatly. Ahead of the “Believe” singer’s TD Garden stop Friday, Groban spoke from his Los Angeles home — where he was happily savoring the last days of a much-needed “staycation” with his longtime canine companion, Sweeney — about how the recent side ventures informed one of his most dynamic discs to date.

 

Not so sunny-side-up, however, is this full-page ad from today’s Boston Herald.

The We-Get-Peanuts graf:

From his Twitter feed, at least, it seems Groban can’t imagine any of it. (Don’t bother checking the Boston Musicians Twitter feed – it has all of three followers.)

If any of you splendid readers goes to the Groban shindig tonight, let us know how the vibe onstage is, wouldya? We’re guessing not too harmonious.


Shrinky Local Tabloid Now Slightly Less Shrinky

November 7, 2018

After months of neutron bombing its sports department (see coverage from our kissin’ cousins at One Daily Town), the Boston Herald has actually hired a sports columnist to fill the void in its Toy Department.

Tom Keegan joins Herald

Award-winning columnist latest addition to sports staff

Boston has a new voice for sports.

Tom Keegan, an award-winning columnist, editor and radio personality who has plied his trade in the Los Angeles, Chicago and New York markets, will join the Herald as sports columnist covering Boston’s championship-winning teams beginning Monday.

“Toughest teams on the planet, liveliest sportswriters and most colorful sports nuts in the country. Cool city,” Keegan said about Boston — to which he has family ties. “My trips to Fenway Park felt more like I was covering an event than a game. Wild intensity. Good times. Can’t wait to resume writing for the back page.”

 

Welcome to Boston, Tom.

Hope you don’t get folded, spindled, or mutilated by your Digital Fist – sorry, First – Media handlers.


Los Angeles Dodgers to Boston Herald: Drop Dead

October 31, 2018

In an apparent attempt to demonstrate that they’re not sore losers, the LA ball team bought page 3 of today’s Boston Globe to run this ad.

 

 

The sure loser? The Boston Herald. Dem Bums gave the thirsty local tabloid an intentional pass.

And it wasn’t just LA that gave the Herald the air. The island of Aruba also ran a Globe-only ad today.

 

 

The tagline: One Happy Island.

Just like One Happy Daily.


Boston Herald for Sale, Price Is Right for Globe

October 28, 2018

When the costly local tabloid arrived at the Global Worldwide Headquarters this morning, the front page of Sunday Sports blared out this:

STAY ON SCHEDULE

Silverman: Red Sox stick to plan,

save Sale for Game 5

 

Said Michael Silverman piece ran on page 3.

 

 

Except . . . this Peter Abraham piece is more like it.

 

 

(To be sure graf goes here)

To be sure, the Herald got it all sorted out eventually, as the paper’s website and E-Edition indicate. But that sure doesn’t help the lowly home subscriber, now does it?


Boston Herald Auctions Off More Editorial Content

October 10, 2018

As the hardreading staff has noted on numerous occasions, the Boston Herald has routinely employed its kissin’ cousin, Boston Herald Radio, as a launching pad for stealth marketing. The digital broadcast platform, which boasts up to several listeners daily, is a convenient venue to interview advertisers, providing content that the Herald has reprinted with diminishing disclosure.

Representative sample from earlier this year:

 

 

It’s no accident that you can barely read the “Sponsored Content” disclaimer at the top of the page. That’s how stealth marketing works best.

Now, however, the sneaky local tabloid has gone one step further with its ads in sheep’s clothing, as evidenced by page 3 of today’s edition.

 

 

(To be clear graf goes here)

To be clear, both sides of that page are advertisements, despite this attempt to make the left-hand side seem just like  a regular interview.

The Center for Wellbeing clinical director Dr. Jeffrey Donatello joined Boston Herald Radio’s “The Rundown” program yesterday to talk about his company’s use of stem cells in Portsmouth, N.H., to help with arthritis. Here are excerpts . . .

 

Uh-huh.

(To be fair graf goes here)

To be fair, the web version of the adterview is labeled “Sponsored Content.”

 

 

But that doesn’t excuse the lack of disclosure in the print edition, which a lot more people will see.

Moral of the story: When it comes to the stealthy local tabloid, caveat reader.


Boston Sunday Globe’s – Gasp! – Circulation Increase

October 9, 2018

So the hardreading staff was working its way through the Sunday papers when we came upon this notice on page 2 of the Boston Globe’s Ideas section.

 

 

One number that caught our eye was the Boston Sunday Globe print circulation increase from an average of 201,358 last year to 213,557 last month.

 

 

Next item of interest: The Globe’s paid digital subscriptions, which have risen to 111,680 according to this filing.

 

 

Problem is, Globe editor Brian McGrory has repeatedly stated that the paper needs to corral 200,000 digital subscribers to ensure its financial sustainability.

So half a loaf doesn’t quite make it, no?

Crosstown at the Boston Herald, on the other hand, the circulation news is downright dismal, as the Boston Business Journal’s Don Seiffert recently noted.

Boston Herald print circulation sees biggest drop in three years

The Boston Herald’s weekday print circulation saw a bigger drop in the first three months of 2018 compared to the previous quarter than it’s seen anytime in at least the past three years.

The newspaper’s weekday average print circulation fell to 40,914 during the first quarter of 2018, according to a report the Herald filed this week with the Alliance for Audited Media.

That’s a drop in circulation of nearly 3,200 subscribers — about 7.2 percent — from the fourth quarter of 2017. It marks the largest three-month decline in the paper’s weekday print circulation since at least 2015.

 

See our kissin’ cousins at One-Daily Town for further gory details.


Boston Herald Advertises Result of Its Brutal Layoffs

October 7, 2018

Our kissin’ cousins at One-Daily Town noted this the other day, but it bears repeating in this space: Since Digital Fist – sorry, First – Media bought the shaky local tabloid, the paper has gone from 225 employees to roughly 100, with the newsroom barely able to field a softball team.

And the lost jobs are not being outsourced as much as insourced – moved to other parts of the Digital First conglomerate.

So, for instance, the Herald’s copy editing is now done in Denver, as the Boston Globe’s Jon Chesto noted on Friday.

Much of the copy editing work heads to DFM employees in Denver, and ad sales increasingly will be handled out of Lowell, where DFM owns the Lowell Sun.

 

Some of the ad sales, however, are migrating to another DFM division – Denver-based Adtaxi – as this house ad indicates.

 

 

Adtaxi is a clearinghouse for ad placement and describes itself with gobbledygook like this:

“Taking an omnichannel approach, Adtaxi offers a true full-funnel solution powered by our intelligent optimization technology, Quantum, that drives performance to the conversion metrics that matter most to your business.”

 

As the sadreading staff at One-Daily Town said, “A Herald sales rep wouldn’t be caught dead talking like that. But a dead paper walking? Sure.”

Two postscripts:

1) From our Irony Deficient Herald desk

Yesterday’s shrinky local tabloid not only ran the Adtaxi ad, but also featured this AP story: “Jobless rate lowest since ’69.”

Except at the Herald, of course.

2) Also from our Irony Deficient Herald desk

The sketchy local tabloid has been running this small house ad almost every day for the past few weeks.

 

 

Except at the Herald, of course.