Globe Herald Hostage (Lowball Edition)

July 13, 2013

Once again the Boston Herald is a day late, but it’s the dollar short that’s interesting.

Yesterday’s Boston Globe featured this update on the sale of the paper:

Field of bidders for Globe reportedly narrows

Groups with local ties – Taylor family Henry, equity group – remain in contention

At least three investor groups with local ties apparently remain in contention to buy The Boston Globe and its related businesses, according to people briefed on the matter.

The narrowed field of bidders includes members of the Taylor family that formerly owned the Globe; Boston Red Sox owner John Henry; and Robert Loring, a Massachusetts native who owns the Tampa Tribune, said people briefed on the process.

The owner of the U-T San Diego newspaper is a possible fourth finalist, but the status of the bid could not be confirmed Thursday.

 

And then the money quote: “The competing bids range from $65 million to $80 million, according to the people briefed on the matter.”

Here’s how that translates into Heraldese:

Boston GlobeBids in for Globe – and they’re low

With bids reportedly at a disappointing $65 million to 
$80 million, The Boston Globe’s impending sale is shaping up as more of a real estate deal than a newspaper buy, experts said yesterday, even as one of the four purported finalists told the Herald they’ve lost interest in the broadsheet.

“The implication is kind of obvious that the Globe as a straight business venture is not very highly valued on the market right now because clearly that amount is probably — at least the majority of it, maybe more — is valued land and the building,” said Rick Edmonds, a media business analyst for the Poynter Institute.

 

Ouch. It’s true that estimates of the New York Times Co.’s local media group – the Globe, its websites boston.com and bostonglobe.com, and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette – were running between $70 million and $120 million, so the current bids aren’t good news. It just hurts twice as much coming from the Globe’s crosstown rival.

And the feisty local tabloid had even more bad news for the Globeniks: “U-T San Diego CEO John Lynch told the Herald they’re out of the running.”

And then there were three.

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Boston Globe Slashes Staff Edition

July 25, 2012

Tough sledding at the Boston Globe.

No snow.

(Tip o’ the pixel: Marvelous Marvin Sutton.)

From crosstown rival Boston Herald:

Globe slashing up to 53 jobs with layoffs, buyout offers

The Boston Globe has offered buyouts to 20 newsroom staffers and 23 advertising employees, at the same time it laid off 10 people from across the publication, according to the paper’s publisher.

The cutbacks come amid plummeting circulation at the beleaguered broadsheet and renewed speculation that the New York Times Co. is looking to sell the Globe and its sister paper, the Worcester Telegram & Gazette.

The Herald piece proceeds to chronicle other Globe woes (“The latest audit in May saw the Globe’s daily print circulation fall below the 200,000 mark for the first time in its history” and “The Herald also reported in May that the Globe was shuttering its suburban bureaus to avoid taking on any more leases”) that may or may not be true.

Meanwhile, over at the Globe, “several” is apparently a double-digit number:

Boston Globe offers buyouts, lays off several

The Boston Globe on Monday offered buyouts to 43 editorial and advertising employees and laid off about 10 people.

The Globe notified 23 people in advertising and 20 in the newsroom they were eligible for a buyout. The packages are voluntary. Monday’s layoffs did not affect reporters or editors.

But the buyouts surely will.

The hardreading staff’s best suggestion: Monitor the Globe and the Herald, and split the difference.

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