Boston Globe drama: What’s next?

By Martin Langeveld

In the high-stakes poker game to at least erase the Boston Globe’s reported $85 million annual operating loss and get to breakeven, it looks like management has won the first few hands.  Following deals with several other unions, the Globe and the Newspaper Guild reached a settlement in the wee hours this morning.  All of the deals need to be ratified, but assuming that happens, what’s next?

The employee concessions so far will only bring the deficit down to $65 million, which leaves a long way to go.  Presumably, the restructured union contracts will provide management the flexibility it needs to pursue strategies that not only close the gap, but reshape the business into a news enterprise ready for a new age.

Here are some thoughts on what else might be coming down the pike for the Globe of tomorrow to survive and be profitable:
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The Kindle DX won’t save the news industry, but that’s not the point: a guide to our coverage of e-readers

By Zachary M. Seward

Amazon just unveiled a bigger, more expensive version of the Kindle that will, depending on whom you ask, “rescue newspapers” or just create “false hope.”

Though details weren’t immediately available, the new, $489 Kindle DX will be available at a subsidized price for those who buy digital subscriptions to The New York Times, Washington Post, or Boston Globe (where home delivery of the print edition isn’t available.) We’ve covered the Kindle and other e-readers extensively over the past six months. Here’s a guide to our coverage, including — after the jump — video from the E-Ink laboratory where the screens for these devices were developed:

In November, we revealed that The New York Times had “more than 10,000 paid subscribers” on the Kindle for revenue of roughly $1.7 million a year. (We also ranked how other newspapers were doing on the device.) In April, I covered plans by several major news organizations to repackage their multipart, investigative series into “digital newsbooks” for e-reader devices — but not the Kindle.

Meanwhile, Josh has written extensively about the Kindle’s potential to boost the news industry. (Magic Eight Ball version: “outlook not so good.”) His provocative column, “Why the Kindle will fail,” prompted some great discussion in the comments. More recently, he observed that the age demographics of Kindle owners is pretty similar to print newspapers. In presentations, one of Josh’s key points has been that the Kindle is “more valuable as a market divider than a value creator” because it separates out the small portion of readers who are willing to pay for content.

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Today is J-Day in the U.S. Senate

By Tim Windsor

A reminder: Today, in Washington, The Senate Commerce Committee convenes a panel of celebrities and journalists to discuss “The Future of Journalism.”

The notion of a Senate hearing about fixing the news business puts me in mind of something Ronald Reagan might have said, mockingly, if he were still stalking the crust: “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help you cover the news.”

Whatever the actual outcome of such an event, if nothing else the YouTube excerpts should be entertaining, especially if David Simon decides to unleash one of his screeds about the newspaper business. If you’d like to follow along, the schedule is here – it begins at 2:30 eastern.