Photo of Tom Winship, editor of The Boston Globe for 20 years, from Intl Center for Journalists, which Winship helped found, posted here in honor of the Globe's truly remarkable heritage
Happened again. The morning newspaper actually arrived. The daily reports in the Boston Globe indicate that negotiations between The Times Co. and the thirteen unions, that's right, thirteen, continue. I hope they've brought in some people from the Harvard Negotiation Project (i.e. the "Getting to Yes" experts) or, lacking that, at least a few folks with well-honed street-smarts who know really quick ways to give some and get some. Newest deadline is midnight, tonight, with large concessions from unions being reported in today's paper.
While the recent unflattering profile of Arthur J. Sulzberger, Jr., in Vanity Fair clearly was settling a few scores, it offers some background on the leadership schema against within which all of this is playing out. I wouldn't want to be a newspaper executive right now but as we're seeing in other industries, some leaders have the touch for leading in difficult times while others are just plain flat-footed.
I wish everyone involved in the Globe negotiations a great deal of equanimity today, as things come down to the wire, and my heart is really with the reporters, editors, designers, pressroom folks, indeed, everyone who makes their living as a result of what happens in the storied building on Morrissey Boulevard.
