Report: Boston group may make bid for Globe

[wickedwritah]

The shocking thing was the claim in the story that the Globe's lost half its value since the Taylors sold it.

http://www.boston.com/ae/media/articles/2006/10/25/local_group_may_bid_for_globe/?p1=MEWell_Pos5

 

[STLIrish]

Is it really that shocking? Circulation has dropped like a rock. The internet is eating the Globe's lunch (as a WSJ story said last week: "Whatever ails this industry got to Boston first.") They've had several high-profile snafus. And they've gone from being a great, proud, independent local institution to a demoralized shell owned by a company from New York.
The good news is maybe that NY company is ready to throw in the towel.

 

[terrier]

If you're a Globie, be-VARE! You don't want Welch within 10 miles of you. I'm not sure who's more contemptible, Neutron Jack or his wife, editor of the Harvard Business Review when she interviewed him , then wrecked his marriage.
This also explains (AHA!) why Neutron Jack was a frequent guest on NESN's Extra Innings after Red Sox games this year, given the ownership ties between the Globe, Sox and NESN.
But then again, maybe the current Mrs. Welch will experience karma in the form of Hazel Mae.

 

[wickedwritah]

Terrier, he can't be any worse than Badass Bob Jelenic.

And STL, I understand circulation has dropped there, but for the paper to lose half its value in 15 years is amazing.

 

[Herbert Anchovy]

James Otis wept.

 

[BYH]

Terrier, he can't be any worse than Badass Bob Jelenic.

No worse. But no better either.

Welch revels in dumping people. He buys the Globe and Gordon Edes might be covering the Red Sox, Patriots and Celtics in addition to chipping in on preps.

 

[KP]

If you're a Globie, be-VARE! You don't want Welch within 10 miles of you. I'm not sure who's more contemptible, Neutron Jack or his wife, editor of the Harvard Business Review when she interviewed him , then wrecked his marriage.
This also explains (AHA!) why Neutron Jack was a frequent guest on NESN's Extra Innings after Red Sox games this year, given the ownership ties between the Globe, Sox and NESN.
But then again, maybe the current Mrs. Welch will experience karma in the form of Hazel Mae.

I can tell you some at NESN were embarrassed every night he was on. The idea that Jack Welch was the voice of "the regular fan" was a slap in the face to many.

 

[Michael_ Gee]

This will never happen. Jack Welch may be an SOB, but he was a good enough businessman to see this deal stinks. Imagine buying a newspaper but letting the old owners keep the website. That, by the way, is why Morgan Stanley's appraisal of the Globe was so low. The group wouldn't be buying the whole thing.

 

[terrier]

Terrier, he can't be any worse than Badass Bob Jelenic.

Touche, Wicked - I worked for Jelenic for too long. But Jelenic never got the rock star treatment from the business and mainstream press, either.

 

[wickedwritah]

Michael, the figure still is stunning.

-- 1993: Boston Globe (remember, no boston.com to factor into the equation then) sold for $1.1 billion.
-- 2006: Boston Globe itself as entity valued at $550 million to $600 million.

To me, things at the Globe started going downhill once Taylor was booted as publisher and the New York people got lots more hands-on.

 

[Ben_Hecht]

Welch buying the Globe?

That'd be rich.

Job One: Shift the editorial page 82 miles right of the Wall Street Journal's.

Taxes? Taxes are for the little people . . .

Eat it, Jack.

 

[In Exile]

A few Jack facts... Jack Welch is a native of Peabody, Massachusetts and the former CEO of General Electric where he earned the name “neutron Jack” for his ability to eviscerate employees while leaving the company buildings intact. While at GE he lopped off something like 100,000 employees and helped turned GE from a company that made stuff into a company of companies that made a lot of money for their stockholders but didn't make things anymore.
This wasn’t enough for Jack, because even though was making scads of money, like 90 million a year, he wasn’t famous yet, at least “recognizable-to-the-average-person” famous. So since retiring, he was written scads of books about management and leadership and Jack Welch and GE and tennis and Jack Welch and golf and Jack Welch, and he pops up on all sorts of talking head talk shows talking about the economy and Jack Welch and his books and Jack Welch and stuff like that, penning pithy little sweet nothings like, “I’ve never seen a business ruined by cutting costs too much too fast.” So that’s who Jack Welch is.
And about that NESN thing. Back in 2002 when old Peabody-born Jack Welch was getting divorced from wife number two and getting taken to the cleaners before marrying wife number three (with whom he wrote a book called, appropriately enough for her, “Winning,”) it turned out that GE supplied Jack Welch with season tickets for the Yankees to go along with his season tickets for the Red Sox. You gotta cover all the bases, right? A week later, when the Security and Exchange Commission started questioning some of those perks, CNN reported that Jack Welch restructured his GE retirement deal and coughed up his Red Sox tickets because, after all, “He's attended just one Boston Red Sox game in the past two years.” BIG fan...of himself.
As Jack Welch said soon after by way of explanation, “One thing I learned during my years as CEO is that perception matters.” But if I worked at the Globe I'd keep that other quote in mind, the one that goes “I’ve never seen a business ruined by cutting costs too much too fast.”

 

[Michael_ Gee]

The best thing about Welch's cost-cutting statement is that it isn't true. Plenty of businesses have been ruined by cutting costs too much too fast, not just newspapers, either. Welch was blowing smoke to sound tough to Wall Street, whose investment ideal is a corporation with no employees at all.
I agree the Globe's decline in value is impressive. Remember, however, that the late '80s up to 1991 were the high point for local/regional newspaper circulation and revenue. Both the Globe and Herald sold more papers in that period than ever before or since. The Taylors sold at the top of what turned out to be a bubble.
The problem for Welch is, would he be buying at the bottom? More people went broke getting back into the market after they thought the Crash of '29 was over than during the crash itself.
We all have a rooting interest in the industry. Can't speak for others, but I'm not fit to do other work. Nevertheless, sitting here in my home, I come up with the following question. Would I spend half a billion bucks to buy a company that's having trouble selling its product for fifty cents a pop? My personal feelings about newspapers aside, the answer is expletive-of-your-choice no.