The Boston Globe

The Boston Globe (and Boston Sunday Globe) is the most widely circulated daily newspaper in Boston and in New England, United States. Owned by The New York Times Company, the broadsheet Globe's local print rival is the Boston Herald.^[2] In 2008 the Globe's average weekday circulation fell to 350,605, down from 382,503, or 8.3 percent. Sunday circulation fell 6.5 percent to 525,959. ^[3]

History

The old Globe headquarters on Washington Street (Part of the Boston Advertiser 's Building can be seen just to the right)

The Globe was founded in 1872 by six Boston businessmen, led by Eben Jordan, who jointly invested $150,000. The first issue was published on March 4, 1872 and cost four cents. Originally a morning daily, it began Sunday publication in 1877. In 1878, The Globe started an afternoon edition called The Boston Evening Globe, which ceased publication in 1979.

The Globe was a private company until 1973 when it went public under the name Affiliated Publications. It continued to be managed by the descendants of Charles H. Taylor.

In 1993, The New York Times Company purchased Affiliated Publications for US$1.1 billion, making The Globe a wholly-owned subsidiary of The New York Times' parent.^[4] The Jordan and Taylor families received substantial Times Company stock, but the last Taylor family members left management in 2000-2001.

Boston.com the online edition of Boston Globe was launched in 1995.^[5]

In 1998, columnist Patricia Smith was forced to resign after it was discovered that she had fabricated people and quotations in several of her columns.^[6] This raised questions of a double standard at the Globe, as Mike Barnicle, who is white (Smith is African-American), had been accused of the same offense without being punished. In August of that year, Barnicle was discovered to have copied material for a column from a George Carlin book, Brain Droppings. He was suspended for this offense, and his past columns were reviewed. In their review, the Globe editors found that Barnicle had fabricated a story about two cancer patients, and Barnicle was forced to resign.^[7]

Globe reporters were an instrumental part of uncovering the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in 2001-2003, especially in relation to Massachusetts churches. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their work, one of several the paper has received for its investigative journalism.

In 2004, the Globe apologized for printing graphic photographs that purportedly showed U.S.soldiers raping Iraqi women during the Iraq war. A week earlier the pictures had been shown by World Net Daily to be fantasies from an internet pornography site.^[8][9][10]

In the spring of 2005, the Globe retracted a story describing the events of a seal hunt near Halifax, Nova Scotia that took place on April 12, 2005. Written by freelancer Barbara Stewart, a former New York Times staffer, the article described the specific number of boats involved in the hunt and graphically described the killing of seals and the protests that accompanied it. In reality, weather had delayed the hunt, which had not yet begun the day the story had been filed, proving that the details were fabricated.^[11][12]

The Globe is also credited with allowing Peter Gammons to start his Notes section on baseball, which has become a mainstay in all major newspapers nation wide. Gammons went on to become a member of the Baseball Writers Hall of Fame.

In 2007, Charlie Savage, whose reports on President Bush's use of signing statements made national news, won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting.

Today, The Globe now hosts 28 blogs covering a variety of topics including Boston sports, local politics and a blog made up of posts from the paper's opinion writers.^[13]

Editorial page

At the Boston Globe, as is customary in the news industry, the editorial pages are separate from the news operation. Editorials represent the official view of the Boston Globe as a community institution. The publisher P. Steven Ainsley reserves the right to veto an editorial and usually determines political endorsements for high office. ^[14]

Describing the political position of the Globe in 2001, editorial-page editor Renee Loth told the Boston University alumni magazine:

The Globe has a long and proud tradition of being a progressive institution, especially on social issues. We are pro-choice; we're against the death penalty; we're for gay rights. But if people read us carefully, they will find that on a whole series of other issues, we are not knee-jerk. We're for charter schools; we're for any number of business-backed tax breaks. We are a lot more nuanced and subtle than that liberal stereotype does justice to. ^[15]

Magazine

Appearing in the Sunday paper almost every week is the Globe Magazine. Doug Most is the current editor.

As of August 6, 2006, the magazine has seen a new look. This new look consists of the cutting out of the Inspirations section and moving it into the Boston UnCommon section. It also adds departments such as Q/A and Pierced.

On October 23, 2006, the Boston Globe announced the publication of Design New England: The Magazine of Splendid Homes and Gardens. The glossy oversized magazine will publish six times per year.^[16]

Contributors

• Robin Abrahams writes Miss Conduct (see below)
• Doug Most, Editor
• Charlie Pierce is a staff writer
• Neil Swidey is a staff writer
• Tina Sutton writes The Clothes We Wear

Regular features

Editor's Notes: Notes written by Doug Most that are relative to one of the features in that week's magazine. Letters: Reader's correspondence Q/A: A mini interview with a local person The Big Deal: A profiling of a transaction that recently took place Pierced: A column by Charlie Pierce Tails From the City: Heartwarming stories from Boston and elsewhere The Clothes We Wear: Style column Miss Conduct: An advice column focusing mainly on good manners and properness. The Globe Puzzle: A crossword puzzle Coupling: Essay about social chemistry. Usually pertaining to someone's love-life.

Pulitzer prizes

Notable contributors

References

See also

• The Boston Daily Advertiser
• The Boston Herald
• The Boston Journal
• The Boston Post
• The Boston Record
• The Boston Evening Transcript
• United States journalism scandals

External links

• Official website
• Boston Globe history
• Boston Globe blogs
• "Squaring the Boston Globe", a blog usually critical of the Boston Globe