WASHINGTON POST: The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England’s most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks. After down-to-the-wire negotiations did not produce millions of dollars in union concessions, the Times Co. said that it will file today a required 60-day notice of the planned shutdown under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law. The New York Times Co. said last night that it is notifying federal authorities of its plans to shut down the Boston Globe, raising the possibility that New England’s most storied newspaper could cease to exist within weeks. After down-to-the-wire negotiations did not produce millions of dollars in union concessions, the Times Co. said that it will file today a required 60-day notice of the planned shutdown under the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification law. MORE
WIKIPEDIA: The Globe was founded in 1872 by six Boston businessmen, led by Eben Jordan, who jointly invested $150,000. The first issue was published on March 4, 1872 and cost four cents. The Globe was a private company until 1973 when it went public under the name Affiliated Publications. It continued to be managed by the descendants of Charles H. Taylor. In 1993, The New York Times Company purchased Affiliated Publications for US$1.1 billion, making The Globe a wholly owned subsidiary of The New York Times‘ parent.[4] Boston.com the online edition of Boston Globe was launched in 1995.[5] Globe reporters were an instrumental part of uncovering the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal in 2001-2003, especially in relation to Massachusetts churches. They were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for their work, one of several the paper has received for its investigative journalism. In 2007, Charlie Savage, whose reports on President Bush‘s use of signing statements made national news, won the Pulitzer Prize for National Reporting. MORE
RELATED: The Morning Call will eliminate more than 70 positions — more than 10 percent of its work force — as it continues to grapple with declining revenue afflicting the media industry, the company announced Friday. About 50 people will be affected as a result of the cost-cutting, while other positions were already vacant, publisher Tim Kennedy said. Those affected will be contacted by the end of today and will receive severance, he said. […] Several news companies, including The Morning Call’s parent Tribune Co. in Chicago, have filed 
bankruptcy petitions in recent months. And word of newspaper industry layoffs has become frequent. The Baltimore Sun, also a Tribune paper, cut 61 jobs from its newsroom this week. Closer to the Lehigh Valley, the Reading Eagle on Thursday announced it was cutting 52 jobs, or about 12 percent of its total work force. The Morning Call, the Lehigh Valley’s largest news organization, highlights the challenges facing the newspaper industry. Its overall readership, a measure of both the company’s print and online audience, grew 9.2 percent in the past year, according to figures released Monday by the Audit Bureau of Circulations. That’s the sixth-best annual audience gain among daily newspapers in the country. MORE
PHAWKER: This is an especially sad day. We got our start at the Morning Call, and included among the 50 jobs axed was our mentor — the man who let us in the back door and got us into biz, who sat patiently with us and went over our stories line by line, combing out hyperbole and hearsay and reinforcing the notion that clarity was the coin of the realm — after 37 and a half years of service. Without him there would be no wall of plaques from The Society Of Professional Journalists and the Pennsylvania Newspaper Association, no thick sheaf of globe-trotting rock journo clippings, and, ultimately, no Phawker. We remember him saying, after one particularly brutal edit, “one day you’ll thank me.” That day is today. Damn.