Tag Results for Jack Connors

After a few weeks of simply printing them, the Boston Globe is creeping back into its own headlines.

The latest story, out today, has members of the Newspaper Guild unit at the paper launching a petition drive to remove the union’s top leadership. The recall is based on what some members are calling a lack of basic communication between leadership and membership. The issue caused considerable consternation during the recent contract negotiations, and recently flared up again when the already-bruised rank and file learned about a surprise possible rise in their health-plan costs.

Earlier this week, business reporter Beth Healy reported that Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and former advertising executive Jack Connors had officially ended their bid to buy the Globe, given Pagliuca’s decision to run for the US Senate. With it ended the only non-profit bid in what had been a three-way sweepstakes to buy the Globe from the New York Times Co.

The rock-solid Beth Healy of the Boston Globe reports today that two of the three suitors for her newspaper - Platinum Equity Group of Beverly Hills and a group led by Stephen Taylor, a member of the family that once owned the Globe - have been invited by the New York Times to meetings and a tour at Morrissey Boulevard.

Notably excluded: The group led by Boston Celtics co-owner Stephen Pagliuca and former advertising executive Jack Connors.

The difference between the invitees and the snubbed? Platinum and the Taylor group have both submitted bids of $35 million in cash, while the Pagliuca-Connors group has offered no cash and has instead proposed establishing a non-profit foundation to own the Globe. All bidders in the Globe sale (which includes the Worcester Telegram & Gazette) have reportedly been told they should expect to assume $59 million in unfunded pension liabilities.

I've been writing for a while that the New York Times is all about dumping non-core assets for cash right now, and this story certainly supports that, notwithstanding the recent posturing by publisher Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr. and CEO Janet Robinson about the Times supposedly not being in any hurry to sell. (Somebody please tell me how having potential buyers at the Globe next month shows the Times is all of a sudden nonchalant about selling the paper.) Meanwhile, in the same Globe interview, Sulzberger also said that price "is not the only consideration" in the Globe sale.

Oh really? Is that why the Times is apparently going for the cash while excluding the bidder that may have the best chance of ensuring the Globe's continued survival as a quality newspaper?

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With the New York Times threatening to shut down the Globe, thoughts are turning to well-heeled Boston business moguls who might step in and save the day. But with the Globe losing money hand over fist, who has an extra $50-$85 million a year to throw away?