The New York Times Co. said last night that it will today notify federal authorities of its plans to close The Boston Globe, raising the possibility that one of America’s most prestigious papers could cease to exist by the end of next month.
A 60-day notice of any planned shutdown is required under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law.
However, The Washington Post’s knowledgeable media correspondent Howard Kurtz writes in today’s Post that “The move could amount to a negotiating ploy to extract further concessions from the Globe’s unions, since the notice does not require the Times Co. to close the paper after 60 days. The deadline, however, would put the unions under fierce pressure to produce additional savings, and the Boston Newspaper Guild promptly called the step a ‘bullying’ tactic by the company.”
The Times bought The Globe in 1993. The paper’s circulation has fallen 14 percent in the last six months and The Globe is expected to lose $85 million this year.
A Globe closure would leave Boston with only one daily newspaper, the tabloid Boston Herald, which has just 10 news reporters and is battling its own financial difficulties.