Boston Globe at a crossroads

[Walter_Sobchak]

Didn't want this to get lumped in with my Howie Carr thread... but according to the Herald, the Globe may be shut down if tonight's union deadline isn't reached.

http://www.bostonherald.com/blogs/news/messenger/

Hoping something gets worked out....

 

[sirvaliantbrown]

From the WaPost:

"A Globe shutdown would leave the city with only one daily newspaper, the tabloid Boston Herald, which has just 10 news reporters and is battling its own financial difficulties."

My gosh.

 

[spnited]

As per 2 a.m. AP story, talks are continuing well past the midnight deadline.
That's good.

 

[JackReacher]

No way this happens, right? I mean....something HAS to get done.

Damn.

 

[Pendleton]

Just moved:

BC-US--APNewsAlert,0017 

BOSTON (AP) — Big Boston Globe union, management finish all-night negotiation with no deal, plan more talks.

 

[Pendleton]

BC-US--Boston Globe Future, 2nd Ld,0126 
URGENT 
Large Globe union, management suspend negotiations 
Eds: APNewsNow. UPDATES with negotiations suspended temporarily. Will be led. Moving on general news and financial services.
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Globe’s largest workers union and the newspaper have finished all-night contract-concession talks without a deal, but will go back to the bargaining table.
Cosmo Macero, a spokesman for the Newspaper Guild, says the union and management stopped negotiating at about 8 a.m. and “should resume in the next day or so.”
He did not have additional information.
Two other unions representing some Globe workers reached tentative agreements on concessions with management earlier Monday morning. The mailers union agreed $5 million in concessions while the delivery drivers agreed to about $2.5 million in concessions.
The Globe’s owner, The New York Times Co., has threatened to close the newspaper unless the unions agreed to $20 million in cuts.

 

[Boom_70]

Does anyone really think for a minute that The Boston Globe will shut down.

 

[RickStain]

Does anyone really think for a minute that The Boston Globe will shut down.

During this round of negotiations?

No.

Eventually? Absolutely.

 

[Football_Bat]

What happens at the Herald if they shutter the Globe? Is there any way the Herald can crank back up again? Is there a JOA?

 

[suburbia]

According to this story, NY Times Co. has given the required 60 days notice that they plan to shut down the Globe. Will this negotiation tactic do the trick?

http://www.newser.com/story/57957/ny-times-to-notify-feds-its-shutting-globe.html

 

[mustangj17]

Sheeehit.

 

[Joe Williams]

According to this story, NY Times Co. has given the required 60 days notice that they plan to shut down the Globe. Will this negotiation tactic do the trick?

http://www.newser.com/story/57957/ny-times-to-notify-feds-its-shutting-globe.html

Seems to me this is what starts the clock running, giving all of them two months (yawn) to work out some grim but acceptable -- and let's face it, temporary -- resolution. Get back to me when we've burned through 59 more days.

Little is more boring than somebody crying wolf. No freaking way Pinch has the stones to shutter the place before trying at least to dump it at a closeout price.

 

[Football_Bat]

According to this story, NY Times Co. has given the required 60 days notice that they plan to shut down the Globe. Will this negotiation tactic do the trick?

http://www.newser.com/story/57957/ny-times-to-notify-feds-its-shutting-globe.html

If they file it today, the first day without a Globe would be July 4. How ironic.

 

[JackReacher]

According to this story, NY Times Co. has given the required 60 days notice that they plan to shut down the Globe. Will this negotiation tactic do the trick?

http://www.newser.com/story/57957/ny-times-to-notify-feds-its-shutting-globe.html

Seems to me this is what starts the clock running, giving all of them two months (yawn) to work out some grim but acceptable -- and let's face it, temporary -- resolution. Get back to me when we've burned through 59 more days.

Little is more boring than somebody crying wolf. No freaking way Pinch has the stones to shutter the place before trying at least to dump it at a closeout price.

Yeah. No chance the NYT doesn't get SOMETHING out of this....either a deal with the Guild or by selling it.

The question is....who would be willing to buy it should it come to that?

 

[JayFarrar]

So if anything they do is just temporary, why not just shut it down?
If Buffett is telling people newspapers are looking at the possibility of "unending losses." Who then would drop the hundreds of millions it would take to buy the Globe? The Times paid roughly $1.1 billion for the Globe, so even if the Times sold the paper for a third of the original purchase price, the loss would still be close to a 700 million dollars. This from a company that just borrowed $250 million from a Mexican billionaire.
The NY Times company is over a billion dollars in debt, selling the Globe would make up some of that, but, to me, the real question is if they shut the Golbe down, would then the company be able to write off more than what they would get if the paper was sold?
The reality is, for most places, the real estate where the paper sits is more valuable than the paper itself.

 

[SockPuppet]

If the Boston Globe shuts down, should we be surprised? Nothing surprises me anymore.

 

[RickStain]

So if anything they do is just temporary, why not just shut it down?

It's about unwinding the losses in the cheapest way possible. There's still revenue coming in and contracts to be fulfilled.

But we'll get there.

 

[JackReacher]

With all this debt the NYTCO has....is there any chance the NYT goes under?

 

[Joe Williams]

With all this debt the NYTCO has....is there any chance the NYT goes under?

Isn't this when Rupert Murdoch steps in?

 

[RickStain]

With all this debt the NYTCO has....is there any chance the NYT goes under?

Not soon. They have enough assets to sacrifice to keep going for awhile.