The Boston globe
The Boston Globe is the leading daily newspaper of Boston, Massachusetts and the greater New England area. The Boston Globe can trace its history way back to 1872 when six Boston businessmen, led by Eben Jordan with a combined investment of $150,000 launched the newspaper. The first copy was released on March 4, 1872 carrying a cost of four cents. In August 1873 Jordan employed General Charles H Taylor, a 27 year old Civil War veteran to run the newspaper efficiently as a temporary business manager, since the newspaper had already run into financial difficulties by then.
General Taylor soon became a partner and then president as a result of his loyalty and success in stabilizing the newspaper. The Globe continued to be managed by the Taylor family for the next 125 years. General Taylor was followed by his son William O. Taylor, and he by his son Wm. Davis Taylor. William O. Taylor, son of Davis Taylor succeeded him. In 1997 the business came in the hands of Benjamin B. Taylor, cousin of William O. and great grandson of General Taylor. In 1999, there was once again a change, and this time Richard Gilman was roped in by The New York Times Company to run the newspaper.
Initially The Boston Globe was a daily, morning paper. The Sunday publication was started in 1877 and soon an afternoon paper, The Boston Evening Globe, was launched. The Evening Globe remained in circulation for 100 years and printed its last copy in 1999.
As time passed, The Globe also underwent a number of changes; it shifted its base from Newspaper Row on Washington Street, home to many of Boston s newspapers to Dorchester, Boston in 1958. The Globe, known as the voice of the White Anglo-Saxon Protestants, had been a private company till 1973, when it merged with Affiliated Publications. Over the next twenty years, Affiliated Publication grew into television and radio stations, magazines, a daily and weekly newspaper and cellular telephones.
The Globe continued to grow and maintain its readership. It was one of the few newspapers in the US which had not become a part of a major printing company. However, times were due to change for The Globe. In 1993, The Globe and Affiliated Publication merged with the New York Time Company to become the biggest and single largest newspaper merger in the history of the US. This brought about the alliance of two great newspapers and two great newspaper families, The Taylors of The Globe and The Sulzbergers of The Times.
The Globe also suffered its stroke of bad luck, it was mired into a controversy involving its columnist Patricia Smith of having fabricated people and quotations in several of her columns in 1998. In August of same year, Mile Barnicle was forced to resign for copying and fabricating stories.
In the spring of 2005, The Globe printed an article on a seal hunt in Halifax, Nova Scotua by Barbara Stewart a freelancer. The article carried precise details to the number of boats involved and described graphically the killing of seals and the protests that accompanied it. However, in reality, the weather had delayed the hunt that day resulting in the story being printed before the reality actually happened.
The Globe has also been accused of misusing its power and history to discredit opponents. It has routinely failed to disclose the power wielded by the government, politicians, media and the businesses of the Metro Boston Area. It has also often neglected to cover the local communities, rather it has maintained its focus on the larger picture comprising of the state, the region and the metro area. Globe has also been accused of misleading the public by distorting stories to achieve its own political and personal goals.
With the advent of the television and the internet, The Globe experienced a decline of 8.2 percent in its daily circulation figures. The decline was attributed to reduction in bulk sales, changing demographics with an influx of immigrants and changing trends among the younger generation. But this has not happened only in the case of Boston Globe, major newspapers across the US have suffered a drop of 2.5% in their circulation, with more and more individuals looking at the internet for their news and information requirements. However, in the case of the Boston Globe, the decline is much steeper as compared to other national dailies. This can also be attributed to one special incident, where the Globe had printed its customer charge card number and other important financial information by mistake and had also allowed the same to be delivered at the people s doorsteps, thus, earning the wrath of the community. It resulted in 180,000 phone calls to the call center, including 4000 cancelled subscriptions. A ballpark figure of $1 million is being estimated for covering the legal and credit monitoring costs of this debacle. There are also rumours circulating that the Boston Globe might have lost more money than the published figures.
A number of cost-cutting measures are being considered, including everything from cutting out the stock tables, as has been done by a number of other publications, to further job cuts. In difficult economic times, staff reduction becomes the most obvious choice. The management would be moving fast on the steps to be taken since the newspaper is no longer in the best of fiscal health.
Despite the controversies, The Globe has managed to win a large number of Pulitzer Prizes in different fields over the years. The famous Notes section on Baseball, which went on to became a mainstay in all major newspapers across the country, was started by Peter Gammons of The Globe. He later on went to become a member of the Baseball Writers Hall of Fame. The Globe was also instrumental in uncovering the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in 2001-2003. The Globe had played a special role in disclosing the role of Massachusetts churches in the scandal and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize for its outstanding journalism. Inspite of all the ups and downs, The Globe still continues to be the leading daily of Boston.
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