There are stories developing about the future of both of our fair city's fine mainstream newspapers. One involves the possible future sale of the Herald by Pat Purcell, and the Phoenix is all over it:

No one keeps a secret better than Pat Purcell. But there is a palpable buzz in local media circles that a major announcement may be imminent — or at least coming soon — at One Herald Square. As everyone has reported, the Herald Media empire — which includes the flagship Boston tabloid that Purcell bought in 1994 from Rupert Murdoch and the Community Newspaper Co with more than 100 local publications that he bought from Fidelity in 2001 — has been on the market. According to the conventional wisdom, with the Herald struggling financially, it is the CNC operation that's the attractive option for potential buyers. Anyway, stay tuned.

The other one involves fiscal woes and coming layoffs at the Globe. We climbed the steps to our throne-cum-soapbox on Tuesday to issue fiery words of armchair-publishing wisdom, and even NEGeek jumped on it. Rumor had it that the Globe had lost money in the first two months of 2006. Boston Business Journal brought us the numbers yesterday:

The Boston Globe and some other New England properties weighed down the New York Times Co.'s February results, posting dramatic declines in advertising and circulation revenue for the month.
The New York-based publishing company reported Wednesday a 12 percent decline in advertising revenue for New England Media Group, which includes the Boston Globe, Boston.com and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette, to $31.2 million in February of 2006 compared to advertising revenues of $35.4 million in 2005.

Of course, the Herald is all over this, as they are wont to do when they smell blood in the water at the Globe. Jay Fitzgerald stirs the pot like this:

The Boston Globe dragged down the financial numbers of the New York Times Co. with a huge drop in ad revenue last month that one analyst described as “a disaster” and the worst he’s seen among major U.S. newspapers.
…
The Times Co. is apparently eyeing staff reductions and other cost-cutting measures at the Globe. Speculation swirling around Morrissey Boulevard centers on possible cuts of non-union managers and high-paid staffers.
Dan Totten, president of the Boston Newspaper Guild, all but threatened labor war if the Times moves to cut union jobs.

Wow — if we didn't know better, we'd say the old media dinosaurs are eating themselves alive in the face of their coming extinction.
Via Dan Kennedy

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