Boston.comment: KidVid Says Site Redesign Is ‘Crap’

May 25, 2014

From our Late to the House Party desk

The new! improved? boston.com has met with decidedly mixed reviews, some of which the site itself is showcasing, as the redoubtable Jim Romenesko reports.

CUTE KIDS COMPLAIN ABOUT BOSTON.COM’S REDESIGN (‘WAS THIS JOHN HENRY’S IDEA?’)

globekids

The kids in this video are reading actual complaints that Boston.com got after its recent redesign. Here are some of the “child actors’” lines:

* “I can’t find anything I’m looking for.”
* “I feel like I’m looking at a children’s picture book.”
* “My wife and I hate your website.”
* “I think my grandmother might like this site.”
* “Is this an April Fool’s joke?”

 

And etc.

(Romenesko: “That’s the son of Boston.com news and homepage editor Hilary Sargent on the right; the other two belong to Boston Globe CEO Mike Sheehan.”)

And the whole thing belongs to boston.com, which “owns” the redesign in its YouTube video.

 

 

The hardreading staff’s favorite: “Boston.com is like the squirrelly uncle you put up with on holidays.”

Squirrel on, DotComniks.

 

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Herald’s Inside Track Revives Lauren Bacall

February 14, 2014

As the hardreading staff previously noted, Wednesday’s Boston Herald had the Inside Track killing off Lauren Bacall prematurely. We also noted that there was no correction in Thursday’s Herald.

But there is one today, at least in the print edition. (We couldn’t find it online.)

Screen Shot 2014-02-14 at 1.12.59 PM

Respeck to Track Gal Gayle Fee. Good to see someone at the feisty local tabloid knows CPR.

P.S. Our original item got Two-Daily Town a nod from the redoubtable Jim Romenesko. Dear Diary . . . 

 

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Thanksgrubbing at the Boston Globe?

November 28, 2013

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:

 

Screen Shot 2013-11-28 at 12.51.44 PM

 

What about Newsstand Nation – you fine with that?

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

HERALD INTERESTED IN BUYING of GLOBE

June 27, 2013

The Boston Herald always delights in any adversity visited upon the Boston Globe. So it was no surprise that Wednesday’s Schadenfreude Gazette framed the upcoming sale of the stately local broadsheet in the least promising way possible.

Boston GlobeIt’s time to sell the Globe

Bids due tomorrow for daily as experts say price won’t be high

Tomorrow is D-Day at The Boston Globe, as bids for the newspaper’s pending sale are closed by parent company The New York Times, and analysts tell the Herald their expectations for a blockbuster selling price are low.

“I can’t believe it’s making much money, if any money,” said Edward Atorino, a media analyst with the Benchmark Company. “Circulation is declining. Advertising is struggling. Boston online hasn’t really set the world on fire.”

Media expert Ken Doctor of Newsonomics predicted the Globe could sell for between $75 million and $150 million — a far cry from the $1.1 billion the Times paid for the paper in 1993.

 

Oh, and on the way out, don’t forget to tweest:

[T]he Globe has frequently been little more than an afterthought to Times brass, said Atorino.

“I just don’t think Arthur Sulzberger spends a lot of time worrying about the Globe,” said Atorino.

 

Wednesday’s Financial Times also reported on the impeding sale, but in a slightly more positive tone (tip o’ the pixel to Jim Romenesko).

1599e14e-5ef8-4aec-be72-373b829fab46.imgBidders line up for Boston Globe sale

Bids for the Boston Globe and related New England media properties are due Thursday, bringing its owner the New York Times Company one step closer to shedding the big city newspaper that has long been a drag on its business.

A handful of local financiers and Boston personalities are expected to submit bids for the group of assets in the $100m range. Evercore Partners, which is managing the sale of the unit, has told people close to the talks that as many as eight parties have expressed interest.

 

Helpful – if startling – chart:

 

Picture 3

 

The Globe itself had nothing to say about the subject on Wednesday. We’ll keep you posted.

3 Comments | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Boston Globe on a Page One Headline Tear

February 18, 2013

First there was this shoutout from Jim Romenesko for Saturday’s Boston Globe front-page headline:

BOSTON GLOBE HEADLINE ‘HAS TO BE ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST’

“Admittedly, I’m biased, as both a Thomas Pynchon idolator and Globe staffer(though I had nothing to do this hed and don’t know who did),” writes Mark Feeney. “But this hed for our two p. 1 stories today on the Russian meteorite has to be one of the year’s best. ‘A screaming comes across the sky’ is great in and of itself, being both accurate and vivid — and as any Pynchon fan can tell you it’s also the first sentence of his masterpiece, ‘Gravity’s Rainbow.’”

- Boston Globe, Feb. 16

– Boston Globe, Feb. 16

-- First lines of Thomas Pynchon's "Gravity's Rainbow"

— First lines of Thomas Pynchon’s “Gravity’s Rainbow”

 

 

Then came this Boston Sunday Globe Page One headline:

Picture 1

 

Not to mention the four – count ’em, four – full pages that followed:

Picture 2

 

Picture 3

 

Per Mark Feeney, regardless of who’s responsible for these headlines, someone at the Globe – maybe new executive editor Brian McGrory – has the soul of a poet.

Good for them. And for us.

 

 

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider

Herald Gives Globe Plagiarism a Free Pass Edition

August 26, 2012

On Friday, as noted by the ever-alert Dan Kennedy of Media Nation (whose new page looks mighty familiar, no?), the Boston Globe acknowledged that this August 17th editorial had ripped off this Todd Domke post on WBUR’s website.

(Tip o’ the pixel to the splendid commenter who sent the hardreading staff this last night: “The plagiarism flap over an unnamed Globe editorial which copied words and structure of a commentary (on Biden’s chains comment) that Todd Domke wrote for BUR web site may be in both papers tomorrow.  Dan Kennedy has an account on his blog.  BG wants to put out the story tomorrow and reveal punishment before the Herald blows it open.  Talk of suspension for yet unnamed writer. Ain’t it great to live in a 2 paper town?”)

But, no – no damage control in the Globe, no damage in the Herald, where this kind of story is normally mother’s milk.(Too busy darning those Sox to bash the crosstown rival? Tsk tsk.)

Jim Romenesko picked it up, but no play we can find beyond that.

Just like Isaac, this is gonna pop sooner or later.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Campaign Outsider