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.jpg) Cover from February 3, 2013 | |
| Type | Daily newspaper |
|---|---|
| Format | Tabloid |
| Owner | Digital First Media |
| Publisher | Kevin Corrado[1] |
| Editor | Joe Dwinell |
| Founded | 1846 (179 years ago) (1846) |
| Political alignment | Conservative[2][3] |
| Headquarters | 100 Grossman Dr. 4th Floor Braintree, Massachusetts 02184 United States |
| Circulation | 13,092 print 27,894 digital (as of 2023)[4] |
| ISSN | 0738-5854 |
| OCLC number | 643304073 |
| Website | bostonherald |
TheBoston Herald is an Americanconservativedaily newspaper whose primary market isBoston,Massachusetts, and its surrounding area. It was founded in 1846 and is one of the oldest daily newspapers in the United States. It has been awarded eightPulitzer Prizes in its history,[5] including four for editorial writing and three forphotography before it was converted totabloid format in 1981.
In December 2017, theHerald filed forbankruptcy.[6] On February 14, 2018,Digital First Media successfully bid $11.9 million to purchase the company in a bankruptcy auction;[7] the acquisition was completed on March 19, 2018.[1] As of August 2018, the paper had approximately 110 total employees, compared to about 225 before the sale.[8]
TheHerald's history traces back through two lineages, theDaily Advertiser and the oldBoston Herald, and two media moguls,William Randolph Hearst andRupert Murdoch.
The originalBoston Herald was founded in 1846 by a group of Boston printers jointly under the name of John A. French & Company. The paper was published as a single two-sided sheet, selling for one cent. Its first editor,William O. Eaton, just 22 years old, said "TheHerald will be independent in politics and religion; liberal, industrious, enterprising, critically concerned with literacy and dramatic matters, and diligent in its mission to report and analyze the news, local and global."
In 1847, theBoston Herald absorbed the BostonAmerican Eagle.[9]
In October 1917, John H. Higgins, the publisher and treasurer of the Boston Herald[10] bought out its next door neighborThe Boston Journal and createdThe Boston Herald and Boston Journal[11]
Even earlier than theHerald, the weeklyAmerican Traveler was founded in 1825 as a bulletin forstagecoach listings.[12]
TheBoston Evening Traveler was founded in 1845. The Boston Evening Traveler was the successor to the weeklyAmerican Traveler and the semi-weeklyBoston Traveler.[13] In 1912, theHerald acquired theTraveler, continuing to publish both under their own names. For many years, the newspaper was controlled by many of the investors inUnited Shoe Machinery Corporation. After a newspaper strike in 1967, Herald-Traveler Corp. suspended the afternoonTraveler and absorbed the evening edition into the Herald to create theBoston Herald Traveler.
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TheBoston Daily Advertiser was established in 1813 in Boston byNathan Hale. The paper grew to prominence throughout the 19th century, taking over other Boston area papers. In 1832 The Advertiser took over control ofThe Boston Patriot, and then in 1840 it took over and absorbedTheBoston Gazette.[14] The paper was purchased byWilliam Randolph Hearst in 1917. In 1920 theAdvertiser was merged withThe Boston Record, initially the combined newspaper was called theBoston Advertiser however when the combined newspaper became an illustrated tabloid in 1921 it was renamedThe Boston American.[15] Hearst Corp. continued using the nameAdvertiser for its Sunday paper until the early 1970s.
On September 3, 1884,The Boston Evening Record was started by theBoston Advertiser as a campaign newspaper. TheRecord was so popular that it was made a permanent publication.[12]
In 1904, William Randolph Hearst began publishing his own newspaper in Boston calledThe American. Hearst ultimately ended up purchasing theDaily Advertiser in 1917. By 1938, theDaily Advertiser had changed to theDaily Record, andThe American had become theSunday Advertiser. A third paper owned by Hearst, called theAfternoon Record, which had been renamed theEvening American, merged in 1961 with theDaily Record to form theRecord American. TheSunday Advertiser andRecord American would ultimately be merged in 1972 intoThe Boston Herald Traveler a line of newspapers that stretched back to the oldBoston Herald.[3]
In 1946, Herald-Traveler Corporation acquired Boston radio stationWHDH. Two years later, WHDH-FM was licensed, and on November 26, 1957,WHDH-TV made its debut as anABC affiliate on channel 5. In 1961, WHDH-TV's affiliation switched toCBS. The television station operated for years beginning some time after under temporary authority from theFederal Communications Commission. Controversy arose over luncheon meetings the newspaper's chief executive purportedly had withJohn C. Doerfer, chairman of the FCC between 1957 and 1960, who served as a commissioner during the original licensing process. (Some Boston broadcast historians accuseThe Boston Globe of being covertly behind the proceeding as a sort of vendetta for not getting a license—TheHerald Traveler was Republican in sympathies, and theGlobe then had a firm policy of not endorsing political candidates, although Doerfer's history at the FCC also lent suspicions.) The FCC ordered comparative hearings, and in 1969 a competing applicant, Boston Broadcasters, Inc., was granted a construction permit to replace WHDH-TV on channel 5. Herald-Traveler Corporation fought the decision in court—by this time, revenues from channel 5 were all but keeping the newspaper afloat—but lost its final appeal. On March 19, 1972, WHDH-TV was forced to surrender channel 5 to the newWCVB-TV.
Without a television station to subsidize the newspaper, theHerald Traveler was no longer able to remain in business, and the newspaper was sold toHearst Corporation, which published the rival all-day newspaper, theRecord American. The two papers were merged to become an all-day paper called theBoston Herald Traveler and Record American in the morning andRecord American and Boston Herald Traveler in the afternoon. The first editions published under the new combined name were those of June 19, 1972. The afternoon edition was soon dropped and the unwieldy name shortened toBoston Herald American, with the Sunday edition called theSunday Herald Advertiser. TheHerald American was printed inbroadsheet format, and failed to target a particular readership; where theRecord American had been a typical citytabloid, theHerald Traveler was aRepublican paper.
TheHerald American converted totabloid format in September 1981,[16] but Hearst faced steep declines in circulation and advertising. The company announced it would close theHerald American—making Boston a one-newspaper town—on December 3, 1982. When the deadline came, Australian-born media baronRupert Murdoch was negotiating to buy the paper and save it. He closed on the deal after 31 hours of talks with Hearst and newspaper unions[17]—and five hours after Hearst had sent out notices to newsroom employees telling them they were terminated. The newspaper announced its own survival the next day with a full-page headline: "You Bet We're Alive!"[18]
Murdoch changed the paper's name back to theBoston Herald. TheHerald continued to grow, expanding its coverage and increasing its circulation until 2001, when nearly all newspapers fell victim to declining circulations and revenue.
In February 1994, Murdoch'sNews Corporation was forced to sell the paper, in order that its subsidiaryFox Television Stations could legally consummate its purchase ofFox affiliateWFXT (Channel 25) because Massachusetts SenatorTed Kennedy included language in an appropriations bill barring one company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market.[19][20][21]Patrick J. Purcell, who was the publisher of theBoston Herald and a formerNews Corporation executive, purchased theHerald and established it as an independent newspaper. Several years later, Purcell would give theHerald a suburban presence it never had by purchasing the money-losingCommunity Newspaper Company fromFidelity Investments. Although the companies merged under the banner of Herald Media, Inc., the suburban papers maintained their distinct editorial and marketing identity.
After years of operating profits at Community Newspaper and losses at theHerald, Purcell in 2006 sold the suburban chain to newspaper conglomerate Liberty Group Publishing of Illinois, which soon after changed its name toGateHouse Media. The deal, which also saw GateHouse acquiringThe Patriot Ledger andThe Enterprise respectively in south suburbanQuincy andBrockton, netted $225 million for Purcell, who vowed to use the funds to clear theHerald's debt and reinvest in the Paper.[22]
On August 5, 2013, theHerald launched an internet radio station named Boston Herald Radio, which includes shows hosted by much of theHerald staff.[23][24] The station's morning lineup is simulcast on 830 AMWCRN from 10 am Eastern time to 12 noon Eastern time.
In December 2017, theHerald announced plans to sell itself toGateHouse Media after filing forchapter 11 bankruptcy protection. The deal was scheduled to be completed by February 2018, with the new company streamlining and having layoffs in coming months.[25][26] However, in early January 2018, another potential buyer, Revolution Capital Group of Los Angeles, filed a bid with the federal bankruptcy court; theHerald reported in a press release that "the court requires BHI [Boston Herald, Inc.] to hold an auction to allow all potential buyers an opportunity to submit competing offers."[27]
In February 2018, acquisition of theHerald byDigital First Media for almost $12 million was approved by the bankruptcy court judge in Delaware. The new owner, DFM, said they would be keeping 175 of the approximately 240 employees theHerald had when it sought bankruptcy protection in December 2017.[28] The acquisition was completed on March 19, 2018.[1]
The Herald and parent DFM were criticized for ending the ten-year printing contract[29] with competitorThe Boston Globe,[30] moving printing fromTaunton, Massachusetts, toRhode Island[31][32] and its "dehumanizing cost-cutting efforts" in personnel.[33] In June, some design and advertising layoffs were expected, with work moving to a sister paper,The Denver Post.[34] The "consolidation" took effect in August, with nine jobs eliminated.[35]
In late August 2018, it was announced that theHerald would move its offices from Boston'sSeaport District toBraintree, Massachusetts, in late November or early December.[36]
On October 27, 2020, theBoston Herald endorsedDonald Trump for the2020 U.S. Presidential Election.[37]
In July 2024, the newspaper laid off three employees. It is not publicly known how many people still work at theBoston Herald, but the newsroom in 2020 consisted of 24 employees. A few years prior, the paper employed 240 people.[38][39]
The Herald's main selling point for years now has been its identity as an alternative, conservative voice to the mostly liberal Globe. But in a state where Democrats outnumber Republicans three-to-one, are there even enough conservatives to keep the Herald afloat?
3. Newspapers of the United States....Massachusetts.
Boston Herald July 29, 1998
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