The New York Times has threatened to shut down the Boston Globe if the paper doesn’t come up with $20 million in cuts within 30 days in a dramatic act of brinksmanship at the beleaguered broadsheet.Unfortunately, I put away the world's smallest violin for the night.
The new draconian demands come just days after the latest round of layoffs at the Globe.
Boston.com and two sources with direct knowledge said the Globe’s out-of-town corporate masters have presented the unions with a stark and painful choice: Agree to massive cuts within a month or face closure.
After a 90-minute meeting Thursday between Times and Globe executives and officials from the paper’s 13 unions, Daniel Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, wrote members that, “They are looking for financial concessions from all unions.”
Totten said the concessions could include pay cuts, elimination of lifetime job guarantees given to some employees and an end to pension contributions by the company, boston.com said.
A union official briefed on the meeting said the concessions include salary and overtime cuts - and furloughs were also brought up in the meeting.
Catherine Mathis, spokeswoman for the fiscally troubled Times, and Globe spokesman Bob Powers declined to comment.
Other sources said word of the meeting and its dire message sent a shockwave through a newspaper that has been battered by bad news and decimated by layoffs - including the loss of the equivalent of 50 editorial staffers through buyouts and layoffs during the past week.
The Globe lost some $50 million last year and stands to lose $85 million this year without “serious cutbacks,” boston.com reported, quoting a Globe source. That same source said the Times can no longer subsidize the Globe’s losses.
On the upside, there could soon be a new wave of unemployed journalists available to go to work for the Democrats.
Via Jules Crittenden on Twitter.
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