To guard against this worst-case scenario, management needs to convince its most-secure newsroom employees — including those who landed lifetime-job guarantees back in the early '90s — that just because they can count on keeping their jobs doesn't mean they should. According to staffers who attended recent Q-and-A meetings on the buyout, Baron has been doing this in several ways. He's been noting that subsequent buyouts won't be as generous as this one (which, in turn, is less generous than previous buyouts). He's also been suggesting that management will try to protect its best employees, and that staffers currently ensconced in do-little sinecures might be reassigned to more demanding jobs after the cutbacks are implemented, probably by the end of April. (If there's anything capable of making a well-compensated, eternally employed journalist think about early retirement, it's the prospect of having to chase ambulances on the night shift.)
Still, given the state of journalism and the state of the newspaper business, even the most artful cajoling and prodding may not be enough to avoid some serious ugliness this spring. "I think there's a widespread assumption," one newsroom staffer tells the Phoenix, "that the number of people who take the buyout will be considerably less than 50, and that we will have some number of layoffs in April."
Whatever happens, it's already clear that the employees who remain in the Globe's downsized newsroom will be producing a paper of diminished ambitions and scope. The Globe's weekly, stand-alone Health/Science section was recently eliminated. The Boston Business Journal recently reported that the paper's City Weekly and Northwest sections, published every Sunday, may be axed. And several Globe insiders tell the Phoenix that Sunday's Ideas section — which lends the paper extra intellectual heft and also houses the work of Pulitzer-winning book reviewer Gail Caldwell and is edited by Pulitzer-winner Gareth Cook — might also be headed for extinction.
With both the physical paper and the newsroom staff dwindling, it seems foolhardy to expect the Globe to do as much as it used to. This bodes poorly for the denizens of Morrissey Boulevard. And given the Globe's long-standing status as a vital local institution, it's also bad news for Boston.
To read the "Don't Quote Me" blog, go to thePhoenix.com/medialog. Adam Reilly can be reached atareilly@thephoenix.com.
