Business

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Out of control

Convenience stores
Would you want a business like this in your town?
By AL DIAMON | October 12, 2011

FairPoint layoffs were always part of the plan

We Told You So Dept.
While FairPoint executives are saying that the 400 layoffs the company announced last week are related to "workload" and "competition," they're hoping everyone forgot that their business model — especially in northern New England — requires regular downsizing to have a prayer at success.
By JEFF INGLIS | September 14, 2011

Is Rhode Island a paywall mecca?

As the ProJo Turns
Media analysts say Rhode Island could be especially fertile ground for a declining newspaper industry's primary survival strategy — charging readers for access to its heretofore free web sites.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | August 17, 2011

Heavy burden

More than any other city on the East Coast, Boston is addicted to property taxes. Could the Hub be hitting a crippling tax-levy ceiling soon?
In 2012, collections on homes, buildings, and private infrastructure will feed more than 65 percent of Boston's $2.4 billion budget.
By CHRIS FARAONE | August 17, 2011

Sallie Mae not

As federally sponsored student-loan giant Sallie Mae prepares to go private, it’s squeezing every last penny from student borrowers while opening up scads of new businesses. How can you protect yourself?
If you have had to borrow money to pay for school, chances are good you've borrowed from Sallie Mae, the largest student-loan company in the US, which currently handles between 40 and 45 percent of the business.
By CATHERINE TUMBER | July 25, 2011

Will Kindles kill libraries?

In this corner: libraries struggling to bring in patrons. In the other: Kindles looking to expand their market. Will it be a bloodbath, or can they hug it out?
This week, OverDrive itself will host its own conference to help libraries deal with a massive onslaught of patrons clamoring to check out books on their Kindles. Can embattled public institutions handle such a drastic change?
By EUGENIA WILLIAMSON | July 27, 2011

Tips for young artists

Express your self; bus fumes; bands behind bars
This region of the country is, and always has been, a magnet for artists. If I spent some time thinking about why this is the case, I could probably conjure up a few convincing theories. But that's not my purpose today.
By RUDY CHEEKS | July 13, 2011

Big boss man

Talking politics
"Government should be run like a business."
By AL DIAMON | July 13, 2011

Business-led Haiti-aid group shuts down

Seeking relief
What happens when lawyers, public-relations experts, bankers and accountants, construction contractors, insurance brokers, and manufacturers join forces to get involved in emergency disaster relief in one of the most underdeveloped countries in the Western Hemisphere? Much less than they hoped, it turns out.
By JEFF INGLIS | June 22, 2011

GOP lawmakers want to do DeCoster 'a favor'

How Soon We Forget Dept.
Jack DeCoster is possibly the most infamous Maine businessman of all time.
By COLIN WOODARD | April 27, 2011

Rewriting the history of capitalism

Revisions
Brown University president Ruth Simmons has made it hard to ignore the school's ties to slavery — and by extension, the ties of well-known Providence families.
By MARION DAVIS | March 30, 2011

LePage’s numbers

Gubernatorial scorecard
This week, we introduce a regular feature, Gubernatorial Scorecard. We'll evaluate Governor Paul LePage's recent moves.
By PORTLAND PHOENIX STAFF | February 09, 2011

Talk time

Press releases
The state's largest newspaper company is about to negotiate its contract with its employees. With workers seeking a share of the company's newfound profitability, and owner Richard Connor striving mightily to stay in the black, this could go very smoothly, or be a bloody, destructive battle — with the quality of information available to Mainers hanging in the balance.
By JEFF INGLIS | February 09, 2011

Political fodder

Will the GOP save the restaurant industry?
Despite some notable successes described here last week, 2010 was a sobering year for the restaurant business.
By BRIAN DUFF | December 29, 2010

Brave the new world

Press releases
Maine is in crisis — big budget shortfalls, lots of people unemployed, a cold winter approaching. And there's this new governor, talking about making life easy for business.
By JEFF INGLIS | November 16, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Paraphernalia paranoia: Allston head shops shut down

Busted
Who is responsible for the wave of "functional glass art" shop raids that has recently taken place throughout Allston?
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | July 02, 2010

By | January 01, 0001

Just hold it

Portland loves its tourists, so why won't we give them relief?
To Portlanders, they're a familiar sight: out-of-town victims potty-dancing around town, pained expressions on their faces, one sip away from having polished off an iced coffee the size of a small child.
By ANGELIQUE CARSON | June 16, 2010

Drawing inspiration

Anarchist Seth Tobocman brings radical comic-book to the Lucy Parsons Center
"Die, yuppie scum," chants the long-haired man, to the beat of a pounding drum. "You don't need to fuck people over to survive."
By VALERIE VANDE PANNE | June 16, 2010

Menino's money problems

Letters to the Boston editor, June 18, 2010
David S. Bernstein’s article on the mayor’s feud with the firefighters and allegations that the city’s coffers are bigger than Mayor Tom Menino lets on is one of the only thoughtful treatments of this contract dispute to appear in the media.
By BOSTON PHOENIX LETTERS | June 16, 2010

Boston pols bail on Bank of America

Locovore Banking Dept.
In this time of political stridency, where everything is either red or blue, Boston City Councilors have found a potential purple issue that everyone can stand behind, be they radical lefties or Fox News worshippers.
By CHRIS FARAONE | June 14, 2010

Pols and blowhards beware: PolitiFact is coming

As the ProJo turns
The Providence Journal , facing the newspaper industry's twin demons of declining circulation and plummeting advertising revenue, is in an intense period of reinvention.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | June 09, 2010

High-octane coverage

The Huffington Post owns Gulf coverage; plus, that Hitchens memoir
Despite admirable wall-to-wall coverage from the national mainstream press and unusually in-depth reports from network television and cable, the Huffington Post has emerged as perhaps the single best go-to source for developing news and wide-ranging commentary about the British Petroleum (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
By PETER KADZIS | June 07, 2010

Privacy concerns make facebook the new bad guy

Networks
There was, for a time, a pretty clear moral hierarchy in the tech sector. Microsoft was the evil overlord, Apple the virtuous underling.
By DAVID SCHARFENBERG | May 26, 2010

Review: MacGruber

Sick fun
From one of Saturday Night Live ’s lamest recurring sketches comes one of its funniest spinoffs.
By BETSY SHERMAN | May 28, 2010

Bragdon vs. Trevorrow, Greens, District 120

Primary 2010
Charles Bragdon and Anna Trevorrow vie in the East End legislative race
By DEIRDRE FULTON | May 19, 2010

Beer on a budget

In defense of expense
The beer industry is generally considered recession-proof, since people are still going to drink beer when times get tough. But has the same been true for more expensive craft beer in the recent recession?
By JOSH SMITH | May 19, 2010

Boston tucks away a $125 million windfall

More for Moneybags?
As debate continues over the city’s finances — and whether the city of Boston can afford firefighters’ raises, branch libraries, community-center staffing, and other costs in tight times — the city is planning to quietly tuck away a one-time windfall of more than $125 million.
By DAVID S. BERNSTEIN | May 24, 2010