Newspaper Disaster

I am heartsick over what is happening at the Boston Globe.  I love newspapers.  I love everything about them, the paper, the ink, the advertising (not the stupid color inserts, the real advertising), the fact that I can carry them around with me and tear out the things I want to keep or remember, and most of all the news reported by real trained reporters.  I worked for the Washington bureau of the Wall Street Journal as a "New Assistant" more than 30 years ago.  I saw how the best reporters in the business did their jobs and how intelligent they were.  From what I see happening at the Globe, those days are long gone.  Now all we hear is how in trouble the Globe is (along with lots of other papers in this country) and about layoffs, cutbacks, boo-hooing about how the internet is cutting into the readership, blah-blah-blah.  Well, after the latest boneheaded move by the Globe, I am ready to cancel my subscription, although I know I won't because I can't bear to be without the paper.  

Awhile back the Globe decided to publish its "Weekly" editions on Thursday as well as on Sunday.  (First bad move.)  My guess is that they did it to compete with the Community Newspapers which are published once a week on Thursday in the surrounding towns.  For example my paper is The Chelmsford Independent.  These papers print the same kind of stories the Weekly editions printed.  Maybe this move looked good at first, but clearly it didn't work because they have just stopped printing the Globe NorthWest and have divided us all up between North and West.  Smooth move Globe guys.  Now Carlisle, which is contiguous to Chelmsford, and Concord, which shares a state representative with Chelmsford, are in the GlobeWest and Chelmsford is in the GlobeNorth.   When you look at the towns and how they were split, it certainly looks like the division was made by someone who doesn't remotely know the area.  

Here's another gripe.  I called Customer Service because I received the GlobeWest instead of GlobeNorth today, the roll out day for this new and decidedly unimproved paper.  Guess where the young woman was who took my call?  Manila.  As in across the Pacific Ocean.  Now I'm really angry.  We are not talking a multinational corporation.  We're talking the Boston Globe which thinks it is the paper of the Hub of the Universe.  ARGHHHHHH.

I have no idea who is making these lame brain decisions at the Globe.  Here are two things I think they need to take into consideration:

1.  Who is their readership?  Stop looking at all the people who say they read newspapers on-line.  Look at who is really buying and reading the paper.

2.  What do they want to read about?  I want to read about my community and the communities surrounding me.  I want news about state and local government and information about community activities in my town and the surrounding towns.   

The Globe is driving me away from the newspaper by taking away the local news that I need to know about and getting rid of the local calendar info and putting it all on-line.  There is no doubt that getting information on line is fast, but nothing replaced having that paper to stick in my bag and carry around.  As an aside, my huge fear is that movie theatres will all stop advertising in the paper.  (The Tyngsboro AMC  stopped advertising.)  BIG mistake.  There are many times when we are out and either a show is sold out or we decide at the last minute away from the house to go to the movies.  I whip out the trusty PAID listings and look to see where we can go.  This does not mean that lots of people aren't taking out their phones and looking things up (I have an IPhone, but I still want that newspaper and will pay for it).  It means there is more than one way to deliver information.

It almost seems as if the people who own newspapers want them to fail.  Maybe the shake-up in our economy will bring about a renaissance or maybe that is just the romantic in me speaking.   Time will tell.