Boston Globe avoids shutdown for now

New York/Boston, May 5 (ANI): The Boston Globe will survive for at least another day, but the economic problems dogging New England's storied newspaper are reflective of an entire industry in the midst of a historic, wrenching transformation.The Globe, which is owned by The New York Times Co., is reportedly on track to lose 85 million dollars this year, or a third of its operating costs, reports the Christian Science Monitor.

The owners, who had threatened to file a formal notice of intention to shut the paper down in 60 days, said Monday morning that they will defer that filing because they reached agreements with six of the Globe's seven unions.

Media analysts are watching closely how the Globe and the Times deal with the paper's daunting losses. Some hope the decisions could produce a prototype that other struggling big-city newspapers could model to survive the current recession, during which advertising revenues have plummeted and both readers and advertisers have flocked to Internet.

Boston Globe spokesman Robert Powers said the Globe is "very pleased" with the progress made so far, even though it's "disappointed" not to have reached agreement with its largest union, the Boston Newspaper Guild.

There has been some speculation that the Times is attempting to cut costs at the Globe to sell the Boston paper, which it bought in 1993 for 1.1 billion dollars.

Sources have told The Christian Science Monitor that the Times is negotiating with at least one group of investors, although under very strict guidelines, including that any talks be kept strictly private. New York Times Co.

The New York Times Co. had originally set a May 1 deadline for the Globe's unions to agree to $20 million in cuts, half of which are to come from the Guild. It extended the deadline through the weekend before negotiations reached an impasse Monday morning. Talks are expected to continue, although specific times have not been disclosed. (ANI)