It is a little bit funny
Dan Kennedy, March 13, 2009:
If being cautiously optimistic about the future of the Globe makes me hopelessly naive, then I offer my deepest apologies.
Dan Kennedy, April 3, 2009:
I am told the Times Co. is serious as a heart attack regarding its threat to close the paper.
[C]an we please get real?
Now for the profoundly unfunny part of this:
Frankly, I think Times Co. demand for $20 million in concessions from the unions sounds like a classic negotiating ploy, except that not even those concessions are likely to be enough for the newspaper to turn a profit this year, or the next, or the one after. Even when the economy turns around and newspaper advertising picks up again - even if only as a halo-effect - Globe employees may find themselves in a high-inflation economy where their employer still can’t turn a profit. Reactionary as I am I just plain like newspapers and I don’t particularly enjoy seeing them belly up.
April 4 update:
Kennedy emailed me the following slightly shortened comments in response:
Comments closed? That’s not even a little bit funny.
I’m still cautiously optimistic about the Globe. And the Times Co. is damn serious about extracting $20m from the unions. But they’ll get their money, and life goes on.
There are many, many things the Times Co. can try with the Globe short of shutting it down, including cutting the print edition to three or four days a week.
