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The pulse of Boston: The New York Times?

Published Monday, November 06, 2006 by seanlmccarthy | E-mail this post

For some reason, the good folks at The New York Times Co. (no relation) decided yesterday morning to paper-bomb my corner of the South End with complimentary copies of the Sunday New York Times. Complimentary, as opposed to free, because the papers greet you at the doorstep with a fine, "Good morning, stranger, how'd you like a big hunk of newsprint to occupy your Sunday?" Not sure what our neighborhood did to deserve all the free papers. Curiously, all of the NYTs arrived in plastic bags touting the Globe's catchphrase, "The Pulse of Boston." Alas, no Globes. Which, of course, is even more curious since we all learned last week that circulation for Boston papers is down, down, down. An odd time for the NYTCo. to be steering potential readers away from the Boston product, but there you go. Then again, if the Globe is indeed for sale, why not pretend it's already gone? Then again again, that wouldn't help the sales price.

Related reading: Both the Herald and Globe saw circulation drops in the past six months. Read about that here. Or rather, don't read it there, because by reading the news online instead of buying a paper, you're contributing to the problem. Read what Dan Kennedy had to say about that. The news for newspapers, however, isn't quite as bad in New York City, where both the Post and Daily News posted gains despite the Internet and competition from freebies.

Info: The 25 largest daily newspapers, by circulation, as of October 2006.