Dear God: Boston without The Globe?
It could happen, and very soon.
For the past 137 years, the Boston Globe has been a key part of the fabric of Beantown. The people of that city and its suburbs and way beyond that, including many in Connecticut, have long relied on its news reporters, columnists, sportswriters, editorial writers, photographers and many others to bring them the full story and plenty of analysis.
But in the 1990s the Globe's owners made a big mistake: they allowed the paper to be sold to the New York Times. And now, with newspapers everywhere reeling in a bad economy (even The Times), the Times' management ordered the Globe's unions to make $20 millions in givebacks and contract concessions -- or the paper will be shut down.
Union leaders say they have managed to find those $20 millions in painful cutbacks but still Times' managers are saying it's not enough.
As a student at Boston University in the early 1970s, I learned to love and appreciate the Globe. When I moved back to Boston for a year in the 1980s, I freelanced there. Once I had the great experience of going into the newsroom. I wonder what's left of it now.
I can only hope that the civic leaders of Boston, who are known for their backing of institutions such as newspapers, will ride to the rescue, coming in like Paul Revere himself.
If not, Boston will be left with -- the Herald. A tabloid. It now has 10 reporters. Count 'em, 10.
Who's going to cover City Hall? Who will tell local fans about the Red Sox, the Celtics, the Bruins?
Say it ain't so, Beantown.