Boston Globe Extends Editorial Bake Sale to Arts

December 14, 2015

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.

Call the roll of recent acquisitions:

First the $tately local broadsheet mortgaged past of its Business section to Rockland Trust.

Then Suffolk University turned the Globe’s Capital Section into a satellite campus – especially Joshua Miller’s Political Happy Hour.

Representative sample from yesterday’s Business section:

 

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Beyond that, Steward Health Care System is co-paying for James Pindell’s Ground Game coverage of the presidential primaries.

Now comes the Boston Globe Arts Auction.  First there was this tease on Page One of yesterday’s Arts section.

 

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Then there was this two-page spread by Mark Feeney about the upcoming Star Wars release.

 

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Note the Showcase MX4D ad at upper left. Sure looks like paidvertorial, doesn’t it?

Then note this ad one page later.

 

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Do we see a pattern emerging here?

Better question: Is there any Boston Globe editorial content that’s not for sale?

Just wondering.

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Boston Globe and Paymate Rockland Trust, Part Two

November 18, 2015

As the hardreading staff noted yesterday, the Boston Globe has gotten mighty cozy with Rockland Trust, with the local bank essentially co-opting the paper’s Talking Points column in its Business section.

What we failed to note was the omission of said bank in this Talking Points item yesterday:

Mass. Banks Given Low Marks for Customer Service

The two largest retail banks in Massachusetts have some of the least satisfied customers, according to an annual survey of financial services firms.

Bank of America, the largest retail bank in Massachusetts, scored the equivalent of a D+, or a 68 on a 100-point scale of customer satisfaction, according to the survey by American Customer Satisfaction Index, LLC, a Michigan research firm. The survey asked 70,000 consumers about the quality of service at their banks, from whether tellers are helpful, interest rates are competitive, and websites and mobile applications are easy to navigate.

That’s below other major national banks, including Wells Fargo & Co. (with a top score of 75), Citigroup Inc. (73) and JP Morgan Chase & Co. (71).

Customers gave Providence-based Citizens Financial Group, Inc., the second-largest bank in Massachusetts by deposits, the equivalent of a C, with score of 70. It was the lowest among large regional banks, including Capital One Financial Corp. of Virginia (77) and TD Bank, NA of New Jersey(75).

 

That’s a lotta numbers from the American Customer Satisfaction Index, yeah?

But notably absent: Rockland Trust.

Consequently, we plugged Rockland Trust into the ACSI search box and came up empty.

 

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So . . . huh.

P.S. Here’s how Rockland Trust sets the Agenda in today’s stately local broad$heet.

 

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P.P.S. From our Bury the Lede desk

We’ve been totally remiss in failing to point this out from Sunday’s Globe:

 

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That would be – yes! – Rockland Trust at No. 1. More, obviously, to come.

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Local Bank Is Embed With The Boston Globe

November 17, 2015

As the hardreading staff has previously noted, these are banner days for advertisers at the stately local broad$heet, which is providing lots of flexibility in selling ad space.

Even more notable, ads are literally In the news at the Globe nowadays.

From today’s front page:

 

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It’s not like the Globe hasn’t leased out this space before, as we painstakingly chronicled last year. But at least in the case of the Citizens Bank embeds, the paper had the decency – sporadically – to label it an advertisement.

With one day:

 

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Without the next day:

 

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Withever.

The Rockland Trust arrangement is different, though. Citizens Bank accompanied its embeds – embads? – with a traditional ad at the bottom of Page One. Rockland Trust’s ad runs alongside the Talking Points column in the Globe’s Business section.

 

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But wait . . . there’s more . . .

Check out the details in the ad:

 

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See? It’s Business Journalism. There are Events. And there’s Advice. All right here at a native advertising site.

A new level indeed.

Oh, yes – there’s also a native ad on the Globe’s Today’s Paper page (see lower right).

 

 

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Lots of talking points here. Discuss among yourselves.

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No Boston.comment for Boston Herald

September 16, 2015

The Boston Globe’s Boston.com website has gone Chernobyl, with two recent masthead departures and 12 staffers laid off yesterday.

The Boston Herald’s Owen Boss has the story today:

Beleaguered Boston.com lays off 12 in big shake-up

 

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A dozen employees were laid off today in a shakeup at the Boston Globe’s Boston.com website, a company spokesman has confirmed.

“This is a business decision that is part of a larger effort at Boston Globe Media Partners designed to put Boston.com in a stronger and more sustainable position for growth,” Boston.com said in a prepared statement. “That said, we would be remiss to overlook the fact that this was also a people decision, one that affects the lives of many who have worked tirelessly to support our operation. We are deeply grateful for that work.”

Today’s layoffs follow the recent departure of the website’s editor-in-chief, Tim Molloy, and general manager, Corey Gottlieb, and are part of a change in “operational vision” for the website, Boston.com said.

 

Spokesman, statement – whatever. Sure looks like no one at the Globe was willing to talk to the feisty local tabloid.

But they’re certainly talking to themselves at the Globe.

Boston.com lays off 12 staffers

Boston Globe Media Partners LLC on Tuesday laid off a dozen writers and producers at Boston.com, roughly one-sixth of the website’s staff. Globe Media chief executive Mike Sheehan said the reduction is part of a broader strategy for the site that will take shape over two to three months, though he declined to provide details. The company has sought Screen Shot 2015-09-16 at 1.15.46 PMover the past two years to establish Boston.com, previously the online home of Boston Globe newspaper content, as a semi-autonomous news and entertainment site with its own identity. BostonGlobe.com, with a metered paywall, now hosts all stories and photos from the newspaper. “It’s an evolution,” Sheehan said. “One of the smartest things that was ever done at the Globe was separating BostonGlobe.com from Boston.com — taking Globe content off the Boston.com site and then building a very robust digital subscriber base that’s now third in the country for daily newspapers, behind The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.” The layoffs came a day after editor Tim Molloy said he would step down and followed last week’s announcement that general manager Corey Gottlieb was leaving to join the Boston-based fantasy sports company DraftKings Inc. Gottlieb and his successor, Eleanor Cleverly, said the downsizing is “designed to put Boston.com in a stronger and more sustainable position for growth.” They added that “we would be remiss to overlook the fact that this was also a people decision, one that affects the lives of many who have worked tirelessly to support our operation. We are deeply grateful for that work.” — CALLUM BORCHERS

 

That item – tucked into the Talking Points column in the print edition – is buried like Jimmy Hoffa on the website.

 

Regardless, we’re still left wondering whether the Globe wouldn’t talk to the Herald’s Owen Boss, or if they missed connections, or . . . something else.

So we’ll send him an email and keep you posted.

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