Tag Results for Pat Purcell

Boston Herald media reporter Jessica Heslam has the story: managing editor Joe Sciacca, a panelist on "Beat the Press," will succeed departing editor-in-chief Kevin Convey, thus ending any speculation that publisher Pat Purcell might make an outside pick. Sciacca speaks:

"I can’t think of a more exciting time for the Herald as we launch new initiatives for print and online. We will continue to deliver the ambitious reporting and unique perspective that Herald readers have come to rely on."

Congratulations to Joe on a big promotion.

Big news today at One Herald Square: Kevin Convey, a longtime Herald veteran who's been editor-in-chief for the past three-plus years, is leaving to become editor of New York's Daily News. He replaces Martin Dunn, whose departure was reportedly prompted by his wife's battle with cancer.

I haven't seen this mentioned anywhere, but Dunn was editor of the Herald for a very brief period in the early 1990s.

Convey's new job entails a switch of tabloid loyalties. In Boston, the Herald is allied with its former owner, Rupert Murdoch. Herald publisher Pat Purcell, who bought the paper from his old boss in 1994, helps Murdoch run regional properties such as the Standard-Times of New Bedford and the Cape Cod Times.

In New York, the Daily News — owned by real-estate mogul Mort Zuckerman, who also has significant Boston ties — has been entangled for years in a steel-cage death match with the New York Post, whose owner, of course, is Murdoch. Here is the Daily News' press release, along with Convey's reaction:

I am looking forward to the challenge of editing the Daily News, which has some of the most talented people in the newspaper business and the web anywhere in the world. It is a great privilege.

Convey's a smart guy who took over the Herald at a time when the paper, and the news business in general, was shrinking drastically. During the 1990s, he was part of the triumvirate that ran the paper, serving as managing editor for features along with editor Andy Costello and managing editor for news Andrew Gully.

Convey became editor-in-chief of Community Newspaper Co., which published about 100 papers in Eastern Massachusetts, when Purcell added it to his holdings in the early 2000s. After Purcell sold CNC to GateHouse Media a few years later, Convey returned to the Herald, serving as the paper's number-two while editorial director Ken Chandler, tarted it up and made it more gossipy — more of a tabloid, if you like. After Chander moved on, Convey took over.

Howard Kurtz of the Washington Post wrote about Convey's Herald in 2008.

Best of luck to Convey, who's a good guy, and whom I generally found to be helpful and accessible back when I was covering the local media for the Boston Phoenix.

Needless to say, it will be fascinating to see who ends up succeeding Convey at the Herald.

Update: Well, that didn't take long.

Correction: Ken Chandler's name now fixed, thanks to an alert reader.

This will probably be my last post until after Christmas. But I wanted to note that the Standard-Times of New Bedford will erect a pay wall around its Web site starting Jan. 12.

As Jon Chesto of the Patriot Ledger notes, it’s not entirely unanticipated, since the Standard-Times’ owner is Rupert Murdoch, who has launched a crusade against free content. Murdoch’s man in New Bedford is Boston Herald owner Pat Purcell, who says he’ll unveil his own paid-content system sometime next year as well.

Though I think pay walls are a bad idea, the Standard-Times’ system is better than some: you’ll be able to read up to 10 stories a month without paying, which means the paper won’t be completely closing itself off to the outside blogosphere.

Still, it’s hard to imagine that the Standard-Times’ fine Web site, South Coast Today, won’t deteriorate under the new system. It’s a shame, because the paper’s original Web site, www.s-t.com, was a pioneering effort that garnered national attention back in the mid-1990s.

The print edition may well realize some short-term gains — no longer will local readers be able to catch up on news in Southeastern Massachusett for free. But Murdoch and Purcell are turning their seed corn into Fritos.

Photo (cc) by Daniel R. Blume and republished here under a Creative Commons license. Some rights reserved.

Opinions about the editorial product at the Boston Herald tend to fall into the “love it” or “hate it” categories, but even the most ardent Herald bashers have to admit that the folks on Wingo Way seem to know a little something about the business side of newspapering.

Not only has the paper been spared the sort of staff cuts and cost cutting that have plagued rivals like the Boston Globe and GateHouse Media of late, but a Herald union official tells the Boston Business Journal that his membership recently received a 3 percent raise. No, that’s not a typo.

It is true, of course, that part of the reason the Herald is in this enviable position is because it did its cost cutting in advance by paring staff dramatically in recent years. While that’s made the paper lean and mean from a business standpoint, the cuts have undeniably had a big impact on the editorial product.

To others, though, publisher Pat Purcell is proving to be just the right person to captain the Herald through the current economic storm. He saw the clouds gathering, battened down the hatches, and, however improbably, may actually steer the paper to safety.

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?