Might John Henry Sell STAT to the New York Times?

January 7, 2022

Boston GlobeSox owner John Henry’s sports shopping spree is apparently not over yet.

His Fenway Sports Group – which includes the Boston Red Sox, the Liverpool Football Club, Fenway Sports Management,50% of RFK Racing, and 80% of NESN – added the Pittsburgh Penguins to that roster last month. Now Henry is looking to drop an NBA franchise into his cart, as Justin Leger reported at NBC Sports Boston back in November.

John Henry and Tom Werner hope to add an NBA team to their sports investment empire, according to a report posted by Axios . . . The news comes just days after it was revealed the Boston Red Sox ownership group was nearing a deal to buy the NHL’s Penguins for roughly $875 million.

It is not yet known which NBA teams Fenway Sports Group has on its radar, but Axios states that it is expected to seek out a target sometime in 2022.

Coincidentally, the New York Times is also in an acquisitive mood; the Grey Lady is coughing up $550 million – in cash – for subscription sports site The Athletic. And the Times is not stopping there, according to this CNBC report by Lauren Feiner and Alex Sherman.

The Athletic signals a potential future acquisition strategy by the NYT to target niche, community-based journalism enterprises with high-interest audiences willing to pay subscription fees for reporting. Sites that specialize in science, tech, and other specific interests are likely future targets for the Times, said the source who spoke with CNBC.

So let’s think this through: John Henry wants to buy an NBA franchise (average value: $2.4 billion). The Times wants to buy verticals such as, oh, STAT – the medical and biotech site Henry launched in 2015. According to Rick Edmunds at Poynter, STAT has seen its traffic grow fivefold and its staff increase by 50% since the start of the pandemic.

Sounds like a natural. The harddealing staff should get 10% if it goes through, don’t you think?

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Google: ‘Support Local News’ Except Boston Herald

June 14, 2020

Google’s $15 million Support Local News campaign made its Boston debut today with this full-page ad on A5 of the Boston Sunday Globe.

 

 

Here’s the body copy.

 

 

Poynter’s Kristen Hare noted the other day that the campaign’s heart is in the right place, even though its wallet might be a bit slim.

“Support Local News,” from the Google News Initiative, Local Media Consortium and Local Media Association will spend $15 million in ads in local newspapers, their sites, radio, TV and online-only newsrooms in North America for the next six weeks . . .

Google did not say how much each newsroom was getting. But let’s say there are 3,000 of them and they’re each getting an equal amount, that’s about $5,000 each.

That’s likely not enough to prevent layoffs, furloughs, pay cuts or to save a newsroom on the brink of closing. But it does set an example for brands and advertisers to invest directly into local news, Fran Wills, CEO of LMC, told Poynter.

 

So far at least, the Boston Herald is not one of the lucky newsrooms. So the headscratching staff sent this message to the Googleniks:

“[We’re] curious why you ran a full-page ad in the Boston Globe today but nothing in the Boston Herald. Given that this is one of the few two-daily towns left, one would think you’d look to support both local papers. Any particular reason you’re not?”

We will, as always, keep you posted.

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