BY DAN
KENNEDY
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Friday, November 14, 2003
The axe comes down at One Herald
Square. Two of the Boston Herald's bigger names will be
drastically scaling back their presence, as long-anticipated cutbacks
at the city's financially ailing number-two daily are finally playing
out today.
Television columnist Monica Collins
and political columnist Wayne Woodlief have both been told that their
contracts will not be renewed. Both, however, will continue to write
for the Herald on a freelance basis. Collins will write her
Sunday "Downtown Journal" column once a week (it may be moved to the
Monday paper), and Woodlief will continue to write weekly as
well.
Although an official announcement
will not be made until later this afternoon, the word out of One
Herald Square is that 12 union employees have accepted an
early-retirement incentive known as a "buyout," and an additional 10
non-union employees -- a category that includes Collins and Woodlief
-- have been told that their positions are being
eliminated.
As of early this afternoon, word
was that not all of those who are losing their jobs had been informed
yet.
Herald spokeswoman Gwen Gage
said the paper would release a statement at 3 p.m.
Collins is expected to spend a lot
of her time on "Ask Dog Lady," a syndicated column of tongue-in-cheek
advice for dog owners that appears locally in the South End
News and the Cambridge Chronicle -- the latter owned by
Herald publisher Pat Purcell's Community Newspaper chain.
Collins also has a website, askdoglady.com.
Woodlief, at 68, is already past
the customary retirement age. Nevertheless, he says he was
"surprised" to learn that his job had been eliminated. "I've gone
through the cycles -- mad, glad; well, not glad, sad -- and in a way
I'm looking forward to some liberation, especially since I can
continue the column once a week," Woodlief told me this afternoon.
"I'll be around to haunt the politicians and afflict the comfortable
and comfort the afflicted for next year for sure, and maybe
beyond."
This has been a tumultuous year for
the Herald. In the spring, beset by declining circulation and
advertising revenues, Purcell brought in former Herald editor
(and former New York Post) publisher Ken Chandler as a
consultant, while leaving editor Andy Costello and managing editor
Andrew Gully in charge -- a confusing management scheme that has led
more than one staffer to wonder who was really running the
paper.
The Chandler-ized Herald has
been a distinctly downscale product, with a heavy emphasis on
celebrities, gossip, and scantily clad women. The early returns,
however, are mixed. The most recent circulation figures show the
paper continues its slow slide (as does the Globe), though
perhaps not quite as much as it would have were it not for Chandler's
drastic steps (see "Tabzilla
Returns," June
20).
The newsroom has been on
tenterhooks since earlier this fall, when management announced it was
seeking buyouts from union employees (see "This Just In,"
September
26 and October
3)
Of course, it remains to be seen
whether Purcell can now right the ship and return his struggling
paper to profitability. But with the bad news finally out of the way
-- until the next time, anyway -- he's given himself a chance at
least to change the subject.
Says Woodlief: "It's clearly not a
happy day. At the same time, most folks are saying, hell, it's the
Herald, we'll go on."
posted at 1:48 PM |
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Dan Kennedy is senior writer and media critic for the Boston Phoenix.
