Boston Newspaper Guild has come forward to save The Boston Globe daily which is facing a closure threat. Dan Totten, President, Boston Newspaper Guild in a statement has said that the guild will help Globe’s prospective buyers to promote good journalism and protect free speech.
“Boston Newspaper Guild members have spoken and, after careful consideration, voted to accept the tentative agreement put forward by The New York Times. All of our members spent a great deal of time discussing and studying the tentative agreement and we respect the decision that they made. It has been a long and difficult period for everyone and we hope that we can now work with prospective buyers to help The Boston Globe carry on with its vital mission to promote good journalism and protect free speech.”
Boston Newspaper Guild said that as a community asset, The Boston Globe is necessary to the character of the city of Boston and indeed the entire New England region. Founded in 1872, The Boston Globe has been at the forefront of news stories that expose corruption at the highest levels, protect the most vulnerable, and celebrate the region’s victories. It is an important outlet for literary criticism and arts writing, and it helps readers understand the changing worlds of health, science and technology.
The guild said that The Boston Globe has won Pulitzer Prizes for important local and national stories, including for its coverage of the controversy surrounding President Bush’s signing statements, the clergy sexual abuse crisis, and multiple awards for Criticism.
“We support the Globe’s staff and workers – who have been asked by the New York Times Company to make sacrifices which will threaten their well-being. We call on the Times Company and Globe management to make genuine sacrifices themselves and share fully in the burden they have placed on Globe workers. And we resolve that The Boston Globe – whose mission of journalism and the defense of free speech is critical to our democracy – must continue to publish in service of that mission as it has for 137 years,” Dan Totten, President, Boston Newspaper Guild said.
In April, the Times Co. threatened to shut down the money-losing broadsheet unless its major unions came up with $20 million in concessions. The Guild, which represents nearly 700 newsroom, advertising and other employees, was the last major Globe union to approve cuts.
The Times Co. is trying to sell the broadsheet and had pushed back its bidding deadline for potential buyers until after today’s Guild vote.The only potential buyers whose names have surfaced are Boston powerbroker Jack Connors, Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and Stephen Taylor, whose family used to own the Globe. Connors and Pagliuca are considering a joint bid for the paper, the Herald has reported.