reinventing the boston globe

As the Globe evolves

From major metro newspaper tomulti-platform news organization

The Boston Globe’s early days

• Founded in 1872and ran into trouble right from the start



• Colonel Charles Taylor brought in the following year to save it



• Colonel Charles Taylor brought in the following year to save it

• Prospered for decades as a Democratic working-class paper

Newspaper Row, 1926

Move to Dorchester, 1958

The golden age, 1965-2005

• Monopoly andnear-monopoly status led to great prosperity– At left: Globe editor

Tom Winship, 1965-’84


• Globe and other major metros covered the nation and the world– At left: Globe editor

Matt Storin, 1992-2001


• Technological and social changes forced a lowering of ambitions– At left: Globe editor

Marty Baron, 2001-’12

The Globe’s crisis of 2009

The Globe’s tenuous stability

• Digital subscriptions across platforms boosted revenues



• Free Boston.com site served casual readers supported by ads



• Free Boston.com site served casual readers supported by ads

• Higher pricespositioned printas a luxury product

The John Henry agenda


• Move the Globe to the center of a hub-and-spokes model, with specialized content appealing to niche audiences — some of which also finds its way into the Globe itself.


• Boston.com — founded in 1995 primarily as a home for Globe stories and photos — will be completely separate, with no Globe content and an as-yet-undefined mission.


• Printing presses to be moved to the exurbs while news and business operations are relocated in downtown Boston.

The spokes

Will revenues follow vision?

• With online advertising declining in value, the challenge is to find a way to make innovation profitable– At left: Globe editor

Brian McGrory, 2013-

reinventing the boston globe

Education