The Great Editorial Bake Sale proceeds apace at the Boston Globe.
As the hardreading staff has previously noted, the $tately local broadsheet is the NASCAR of newsprint, with logos peppered on it every which way. Take, for the latest example, today’s edition of Capital, starting Page One upper left.
That’s bookended by the strip across the bottom of the page.
And echoed in this page 3 ad.
Moving on, we have James Pindell’s Ground Game, brought to you by Steward.
Not coincidentally, Steward Health Care System also bought the back page.
Last, and sort of least, the Globe mortgaged its Politics Cafe to Capital One, a natural fit for this particular section..
So to recap: There are now a myriad of ways to use the pages of the Boston Globe to plug your products or services. Nothing especially egregious in most of the above, except allowing Steward to attach itself to editorial content. That’s a slippery slope the mately local broadsheet really should stay off.
And now, not surprisingly, the stealthy local tabloid wants in on the auction – in this case via Boston Herald Radio, the streaming audio service that up to dozens of people listen to.
Today’s Herald, page 17:
Upper right:
The frosty (cashword) local tabloid has often run excerpts from BHR interviews alongside its daily promotional ad. But this is the first time the interview is “Sponsored Content” – that is to say, an ad itself.
We get it that newspapers have to come up with creative ways to generate revenue, which is one reason all this sponsored content is suddenly popping up.
We’re just wondering if there’s any bottom to that well.
As the hardreading staff has recently noted, the Boston Globe has lately been auctioning off various sections of the paper to the highest marketing bidder.
It wasn’t that long ago that the Boston Herald served as a sort of satellite campus for Suffolk University, teaming up on everything from polling to webcasts to editorial content.
But now Day Hop U has transferred out of the flunky local tabloid and enrolled in the Boston Globe’s Capital section.
Page One of today’s $tately local broadsheet (see bottom).
And Page One of the Capital section (see top and bottom).
Inside, readers get a fuller picture of the Globe/Suffolk collaboration, especially the Suffolk Solutions – what to call it? – marketing initiative that also include Globe reporter Joshua Miller’s Political Happy Hour (which now features a Suffolk University logo). The ad on page 3:
For the body copy-impaired:
If you go to the Suffolk Solutions site embedded in BostonGlobe.com, you find this “Sponsored” home page:
And here’s the video, which features Rachel Cobb, associate professor and chair of Suffolk University’s Department of Government, who’s also featured in the print ad.
Don’t be surprised if Dr. Cobb also finds her way into some of the Globe’s editorial coverage of local politics.
The Suffolk alliance is the second of these sponsorships the Globe has recently unveiled (the hardreading staff noted this one with Rockland Trust in the Business section last month).
But – wait – there’s yet a third, comfortably nestled in the Globe’s front-page News in brief column:
Yes, apparently the $tately local broadsheet has also auctioned off James Pindell’s Ground Game vertical covering the presidential primaries. The highest bidder? Steward Health Care System.
We look forward to further leasing out of the Boston Globe’s editorial content. Your suggestions go here . . .
As the hardreading staff has dutifully chronicled, the Boston Herald has been a satellite campus of Suffolk University for years now, including – but not limited to – their joint Press Party Wayne’s World webcast, their Race for Governor tag-teaming of the 2014 Massachusetts gubernatorial election, their Inside the Race for Mayor for the 2013 Boston mayoral race, the John Nucci Connection (sounds like a ’60s British Invasion band, no?), and etc.
So imagine our surprise when this ad turned up not in the bestie local tabloid, but in the Boston Globe.
As we’ve previously noted, the Boston Globe has been rather – how shall we put it? – ad-aptable lately with UMass, from a special supplement masquerading as editorial content to, most notably, the pimping out of the Globe banner last month.
A splendid reader now sends this to the tsktsking staff:
[H]ave you noticed recently the UMass-Branded Business section in the Globe? I know they’re doing a lot (a lot!) of advertising in the Globe, but the UMass logo placement next to the “Business” banner on the front page of the new section makes it seem almost like a paid advertising section. I saw it there yesterday, and again today. I believe 2-3 times more in the last 10 days.
Here’s the one from today:
The splendid reader is correct: The bug also appeared in yesterday’s edition, as well as last Wednesday through Friday. Oddly, on none of those days did UMass run an actual, old-fashioned ad.
And the splendid reader is likewise correct that the bug makes the Globe’s Business section look like a partly owned subsidiary of the Massachusetts higher ed system.
In fairness, though, the Boston Herald looks like a totally owned subsidiary of Suffolk University. So maybe this is just Business as usual.
The Boston Herald has slowly evolved into a cross between The Onion and one big selfie.
Exhibit Umpteen: The feisty local tabloid’s hyperventilating coverage today of . . . itself! Specifically the gubernatorial debate the the Herald will stream on its website tomorrow.
. . . to Hillary “Cassandra” Chabot’s dire warning to Martha Coakley . . .
. . . to John “Cassandra” Nucci’s dire warning to everyone else . . .
Wow. So, presumably, there will be a tremendous web audience tomorrow morning, extensive media coverage of the debate, and serious repercussions for the candidates.
It started yesterday with Jason Schwartz’s big John Henry takeout (via Boston Daily).
Will John Henry Save the Globe?
Maybe, but his ambitions are much grander. “I feel my mortality,” he says. So here’s his plan: He’s going to use the time he has left on earth to try to save journalism itself.
Just days after striking a deal to buy the Boston Globe from the New York Times Company last summer, John Henry walked into the paper’s newsroom as the city’s most important private citizen in decades—maybe centuries. He already owned one great Boston institution, the Red Sox, and now, for a mere $70 million, he’d bought a second.
As he made his way around the room to greet reporters and editors, neither party knew quite what to make of the other. “He was standing, hovering over my desk with an outstretched arm. It was really weird,” one reporter recalls. “Like, ‘Hi, I’m John Henry.’ ‘Oh, hello.’”
“You’re shaking a billionaire’s hand,” says another. “There’s an apprehension to it. Okay, what’s going to happen? We know so little about him.”
We know more now, thanks to the Boston magazine piece. For instance, we know this:
[Henry has] decided that it’s time for the Globe to make a move. The prospective sale of the paper’s 16-acre Morrissey Boulevard property, he says, “will provide us with the ability to move into a smaller, more efficient and modern facility in the heart of the city. We believe that there is enough excess value there to fund very important investments in our long-term future, if the community supports development of the property.”
Moving broadsheet to smaller digs in ‘heart’ of Boston
Red Sox owner John Henry plans to sell The Boston Globe’s headquarters on Morrissey Boulevard and relocate the broadsheet to a smaller facility somewhere “in the heart of” the Hub — but so far he’s made no mention of when the move will happen or what he’ll do with the paper’s printing press operations.
“I’m sure right now there are a lot of people at the Globe wondering what’s going on, but certainly if I were an employee that worked on the printing press I would be concerned,” said Suffolk University journalism chairman Bob Rosenthal.
One possibility: a shotgun wedding between the Globe and NESN, which has studios in Watertown.
[Insert don’t-forget-to-tweest graf here]
The decision to sell underlines what many experts have said all along — that the $70 million sale to Henry was mainly a land transaction.
“It is a reminder of how much of the value of the Globe lies in the real estate and physical assets, and how little remains in the financial value of the operating company,” said Nicholas Retsinas, a senior lecturer in real estate at the Harvard Business School.
Ouch.
Crosstown at the stately low-cost broadsheet, all’s quiet on the Henry front. We’ll see how long that lasts.
It’s all gubernatorial all the time at the feisty local tabloid today.
Start with the Herald’s big announcement:
Herald, Suffolk U. team for gov race
On to the race for governor!
The Herald and Suffolk University, building on the success of an innovative partnership in providing in-depth coverage of the Boston mayoral race, are teaming up again for the Massachusetts governor’s race.
Respected pollster David Paleologos will offer his surveys and analysis exclusively in the Herald along with deep behind-the-numbers analysis in his featured “Poll Pal” column. Suffolk’s John Nucci will weigh in with commentary on the latest from the campaign trail alongside Herald reporters and columnists.
New this campaign cycle will be “Boiler Room,” a webcast featuring Suffolk students and professors joining Herald political staffers and GOP and Democratic strategists to look closely at the issues and campaign messages.
Here’s how that looks:
And this:
And this:
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: The Herald should be covering Suffolk University, not serving as its satellite campus.
But wait! There’s actually a Suffolk-Free Zone at the Herald, starting with Hillary Chabot’s column on the Menino Machine being up for grabs in the gubernatorial race.
The impending demise of Mayor Tom Menino’s king-making political machinery means Boston is wide open in the upcoming gubernatorial race — and even GOP candidate Charlie Baker is looking to make inroads in the true blue city.
“I think Boston will be very much in play,” said former Boston City Councilor John Tobin, who noted that the same well-honed operation that clinched statewide elections for Gov. Deval Patrick and U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren will fragment when Menino leaves office in January.
“There’s a splintering effect,” Tobin said. “It took a long time to build that machine and it’s going to be interesting to see how the race takes shape.”
Not surprising then that Holly Robichaud’s piece predicts blood ‘n’ guts in the Democratic primary.
Nationally many congressional Democrats in vulnerable seats have already started to abandon the Obama regime and the Obamascare law. With millions more voters about to lose their employer health insurance coverage, the ranks of mutiny will grow.
Back here at home the division will be brought on by a nasty Democrat gubernatorial primary now that John Walsh is no longer the state party chairman. There will be no clearing of the field like Walsh did for Lizzy Warren.
It’s going to be a Democrat shootout at the O.K. Corral between Attorney General Marsha [really?] Coakley and state Treasurer Steve Grossman as they fight for their political lives.
That’s what Two-Time Charlie Baker is hoping as well.
(Crosstown rival Boston Globe, meanwhile, looks at a potentially pesky partnership Baker might have if Karyn Polito succeeds in a GOP lieutenant governor bid.)
Let the [your campaign spending estimate goes here] rumpus begin!
Well, more like shaker-upper if you want to get technical about it.
The feisty local tabloid has a new host for Press Party, its weekly media-review webcast, along with a streamlined panel.
The musical chairs featured former Press Party multimedia reporter Katie Eastman taking over the host’s role, while former host (and Herald columnist) Joe Battenfeld moves over to the panel.
(That’s Herald reporter Hillary Chabot and Suffolk University’s Bob Rosenthal in the other two chairs. The fifth chair from previous webcasts is, well, unendowed.)
As for the content of the webcast, we’ll leave that to the hardreading staff at Campaign Outsider.
Meanwhile, in other Herald web news, a splendid reader of Two-Daily Town sent this today:
Have you noticed that they’ve cut the 6 to 9 a.m. slot [on Boston Herald Radio]? If you turn to the radio page in the paper, you’ll see there’s nothing listed. I listened this morning for a bit between 6 and 6:30 and heard an unbelievably lame segment from yesterday’s sports show followed by the beginning of Graham’s Thursday show.
Said radio page:
The rumor mill also has Battenfeld taking over the vacated 6 to 9 slot.
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