The Return of the Moguls: How Jeff Bezos and John Henry Are Remaking Newspapers for the Twenty-First Century by Dan Kennedy

Author:Dan Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UP of New England
Published: 2018-01-15T00:43:22.305000+00:00

TO COUNTER THE ONGOING DECLINE of newspaper advertising, the Globe under Henry—and during the final years of Times Company ownership—has taken a number of steps to persuade readers to pick up an increasing share of the cost, both in print and online. When Chris Mayer was running the business side, the Globe adopted a policy of charging as much as the market would bear for the print product. The result was that even though some customers stopped subscribing, overall revenues stabilized.59

As of early 2017, the print edition remained expensive: $2 on weekdays and $4.50 on Sundays, more than what peer newspapers, such as the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Miami Herald, and the Portland Oregonian, were charging.60 Katie Kingsbury, the Globe’s managing editor for digital, wrote in the Nieman Journalism Lab that print should be viewed as a specialty item for those willing to pay for it. “In the United States,” she said, “print is no longer the media for the masses but a bespoke product to be managed—which might be the best thing that ever happened to it.”61

Yet the Globe’s ongoing commitment to print did not prevent what was probably the worst failure of the Henry era: the disastrous rollout of, and hasty retreat from, a change in print distribution vendors starting in the final days of 2015.

Top Globe officials were unhappy with both the price and the performance of Publishers Circulation Fulfillment, or PCF, which delivered not just the Globe but virtually every other paper in the Boston area, including the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Boston Herald. Not only was the Globe “getting gouged,” Henry told me, but “the number-one reason for cancellation was delivery issues.” The paper signed an agreement with another vendor, ACI Media Group, which was not up to the challenge. Papers went undelivered in many neighborhoods in and around Boston. At one point the head of ACI, Jack Klunder, said it might take four to six months before the earlier level of service could be restored.62

The situation became such a crisis that Globe employees were asked during the first weekend in January to help assemble and deliver the Sunday paper. For the Globe, it was a huge and embarrassing story. Along with reporters from other media organizations, I showed up at the Globe’s Newton distribution center late that Saturday night and interviewed the paper’s journalists as they went about their duties. “We’re fighting for our survival here, and I like doing what I’m doing. Not just because I get paid, but because I love journalism,” the technology columnist, Hiawatha Bray, said. Todd Wallack, an investigative reporter, added: “People deserve their paper. I agree with all our readers. They have a right to expect the paper to be there every morning.”63

Within days, the Globe began transitioning back to PCF. Henry published an apology in the Globe that contained such classic lines as “Our region is full of old houses, curvy roads, and hidden cul-de-sacs” and “People want their paper every day in a particular place at a particular time.

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