Ask John Henry: What Exactly Does a COO Do?

January 9, 2014

Boston Red Sox/Boston Globe owner John Henry made a rare public appearance at a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast yesterday and made news with his announcement that he might sell the Morrissey Boulevard property and will appoint a new COO of the Globe maeda_09henry_biz2now that publisher Christopher Mayer has stepped down.

The question is, what is a COO?

The Globeniks better hope it’s nothing like the chief content officer position Time, Inc. recently established for its publications.

As the hardtracking staff at Sneak Adtack noted last fall, Time, Inc. CCO Norman Pearlstein is now the person that both the business side and the editorial side report to, “leading some to wonder whether business interests would now trump those of edit.”

According to New York Times columnist Joe Nocera, Pearlstein “praised the model being developed by Forbes magazine, which includes ‘sponsored’ content alongside the work of its staff writers. He said that the business side would not be able to hire an editor unless he went along with it.”

Be afraid, Globeniks. Be very afraid.

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Boston Herald Welches on Jobless Numbers

October 7, 2012

The Boston Herald jumped the shark yet again with yesterday’s Page One (via the Newseum’s Today’s Front Pages):

That thoroughly irresponsible headline was followed up by a slightly more responsible piece inside:

Backlash as GE legend slams jobless numbers

The typically sedate ritual of monthly jobs reporting has ignited a political fire storm, with shocked economists calling the huge job gains a “fiscal anomaly” and former Hub business titan Jack Welch sparking a Twitter war with accusations President Obama’s Chicago cronies are cooking the books.

“This whole number is made of a whole mess of assumptions,” the former General Electric CEO and Hub resident told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto. “Who’s participating? Who’s not working? Who’s trying to work that’s dropped out. It just raises the question. I think there ought to be a good discussion of how this number is calculated.”

Earlier in the day, Welch tweeted: “Unbelievable jobs numbers..these Chicago guys will do anything..can’t debate so change numbers.”

That’s total nonsense, unless you’re a card-carrying member of Tinfoil Hat Nation.

But reality’s never gotten in the way of a juicy Herald story.

(For once, the absence of a story in the Boston Globe is a good thing, although it did post this on its website.)

Meanwhile, for a more earthbound perspective, see Joe Nocera’s column in Saturday’s New York Times, and this piece on NPR’s Weekend All Things Considered.

P.S. Earth to Herald: Get a grip, eh?

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