It is very distressing news that the New York Times Company, which has owned the Boston Globe since 1993, is threatening to close down the 137 year old paper, one of the better newspapers in the nation, which has won numerous awards and Pulitzer Prizes. The losses at the Globe have been monumental in the present recession which has mightily hurt the newspaper industry, already forcing the shutdown of the Rocky Mountain News in Denver, and the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.Â
It is certainly understandable that one cannot expect any corporation to continue to lose money and yet fail to shut down or cut back on losing propositions. Having said that, it seems to me that it would be a crime to have the Boston Globe terminated, particularly by a company which is seen as the gold or platinum level of journalism. After all, the New York Times, along with the Washington Post, are regarded as the very best of newspaper journalism for many years, as indeed the "newspapers of record". Boston is too significant a city in its impact on our culture and politics to leave them without a paper long regarded as one of our very best daily newspapers.
So I am hopeful that somehow we will see the Globe continue to play a major role in American journalism.