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The New York Times Co. has rejected a proposal by a group of Boston businessmen to buy The Boston Globe. In a Nov. 17 letter, Times Co. chief executive Janet Robinson said the Globe remains an important Times Co. asset, and said the company was not interested in pursuing the sale, according to two executives who have seen the letter. Robinson's letter was in response to a previously unreported letter from retired General Electric chief executive Jack Welch asking for exclusive rights to negotiate with the Times Co. to buy the Globe. Welch could not be reached for comment. But...

The Boston Globe's recent article on Dick Cheney's "fate" after the recent elections is an interesting, if not subtle, attempt to make it seem as if the Vice President were somehow on his way out just like Donald Rumsfeld was. Even painting Bush as "forgetting" the VP was in a recent meeting intimating that Cheney is not included in running the country anymore.(Cheney doesn't need Rumsfeld anymore) Here is the lead paragraph of the story: WASHINGTON -- When President Bush and the two top Democrats in the House met with reporters on Thursday, Vice President Dick Cheney was largely silent,...

"The F Word" isn't a documentary or a mockumentary. It's a stoke-umentary, created solely to stoke the fires of non-Republicans who may be feeling passive about voting. The election-eve timing of the IFC movie, which premieres tonight at 9, only highlights its mission to serve as motivational therapy for Democrats, Independents, and just about anyone who doesn't believe in George Bush...In short, it's a bash-Bush bash. What saves the movie for me is what might damn it for others. Director Jed Weintrob is openly preaching to the converted here, and he makes no token efforts to appear even slightly objective....

The New York Times Co. said it might write down the value of the unit that includes the Globe. Results at New England Media Group trended "lower than expected" in the first nine months of the year because of advertiser consolidation and competition with online media, the New York company said in a regulatory filing. The move may signal receptiveness by the controlling Sulzberger family to potential bids for the Globe, said Edward Atorino, a Benchmark Co. analyst. Former General Electric Co. chairman Jack Welch said this week that he is interested in buying the newspaper. The review is part...

As Philadelphia is finding out, local ownership of big city newspapers isn't a panacea. With a local group considering making a bid to buy The Boston Globe from The New York Times Co., media specialists warned that newspapers, regardless of ownership, face huge challenges as readers and advertisers move online, and the industry seeks a financial model to support extensive newsgathering operations. In Philadelphia, a local group earlier this year bought the broadsheet Inquirer and tabloid Daily News from the McClatchy Co. chain, sparking hope within the community and the two papers for an end to the relentless cost-cutting under...

Two of Boston's best-known businessmen -- retired General Electric Co. chief executive Jack Welch and adman Jack Connors -- are quietly exploring the possibility of making an offer to buy The Boston Globe from The New York Times. While neither Welch nor Connors would comment, several executives who have participated in the discussions caution the plans are preliminary. But the executives are working with the investment bank JPMorgan Chase & Co. to analyze a potential deal. They say JPMorgan has valued the Globe at $550 million to $600 million, well below the $1.1 billion the Times Co. paid in 1993....

Boston business legends Jack Welch and Jack Connors have held talks about trying to buy The Boston Globe from the New York Times Co., sources have told the Herald. Welch and Connors are part of a local group that has discussed the idea of trying to return the Globe to local hands, following similar moves in Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Boston concessions king Joe O’Donnell is also said to be part of the group. The Globe reported last night that each man has tentatively committed $25 million to the deal, citing an executive. Mall developer Steve Karp’s name has also...

Romney's Mormon Allies October 23, 2006 WHEN JESUS, as quoted in Matthew's Gospel, said, ``Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's, and unto God the things that are God's," he was stressing the need to separate the civil and religious realms -- a message that has resounded across the centuries, and that churches and political leaders often have been tempted to ignore. The Mormon church and Mitt Romney should make sure that the church stays out of his nascent presidential campaign. The Globe reported last week that a top church official held a meeting with Romney's son at church...

Memo to Boston Globe gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits. Globe staffers have been told that health and dental benefitsfor gay employees’ domestic partners are being discontinued. Gay couples who want to keep their benefits must marry by Jan. 1. A memo sent to the Globe’s Boston Newspaper Guild members, and obtained by the Herald, states that Massachusetts gay Guild employees can extend their benefits to their partners only if they marry. “An employee who currently covers a same-sex domestic partner as a dependent will have to marry his or her partner by...

Memo to Boston Globe gay and lesbian Guild employees: Get married or lose your domestic partner benefits. Globe staffers have been told that health and dental benefitsfor gay employees’ domestic partners are being discontinued. Gay couples who want to keep their benefits must marry by Jan. 1. A memo sent to the Globe’s Boston Newspaper Guild members, and obtained by the Herald, states that Massachusetts gay Guild employees can extend their benefits to their partners only if they marry.

Station likely to get new home on the dial If all goes as planned, local classical music fans will be able to keep listening to their favorite radio programming on WCRB-FM. But instead of tuning into 102.5 as they now do, they'll turn to another frequency on the FM dial, 99.5. The current WCRB-FM is being sold to Greater Media, which owns 19 radio stations, including five in Boston. Much speculation has surrounded the station's fate -- and its classical format. But it appears the format will live on, if on a station that's more difficult to hear in the...

An Emersonian transformation under way By Christopher Lydon Spring 2006 the town crier is dead and gone, without a successor. We will not hear his hand-bell or his hectoring again. Around his grave the green crocus shoots of new media are growing toward something entirely different: a faster, more diversified, detailed, checkable, and democratic “network of networks” of information and opinion. It could be worthy someday, if we’re lucky, of the great father of all New England conversation, Ralph Waldo Emerson. The Internet is that “better mousetrap” to which, as Emerson said, the world beats a path. I love it...

Newspaper circulation fell 2.6 percent in the six-month period ending in March, according to data released Monday, as the industry continued to struggle with competition from other media outlets and the Internet. The decline in average paid weekday circulation was about the same as the previous time newspapers reported six-month circulation figures for the period ending last September, according to the Newspaper Association of America, a trade group. The NAA reported that average paid circulation at Sunday newspapers fell 3.1 percent versus the same period a year ago, also a comparable decline with the last time circulation figures were reported....

New York Times chief Arthur Sulzberger Jr. yesterday refused to rule out cutbacks at the Times-owned Boston Globe, saying the decision will ultimately be up to managers in Boston. Sulzberger, in town to shore up morale at the struggling Globe, met with senior managers as part of his two-day review of operations on Morrissey Boulevard. According to sources, he told department heads that no decisions have been made yet on whether there will be staff reductions. He specifically said Globe brass will make the final call on whether to implement another round of cuts, in addition to last year’s elimination...

NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times Co. said Wednesday that it expects lower profits in the first quarter and reported uneven advertising results for February amid weakness at its New England media group, which includes The Boston Globe and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. The company, which also publishes the International Herald Tribune and a group of regional newspapers, forecast net income of 22 cents to 24 cents per share, which includes estimated costs for job cuts of 3 cents to 4 cents per share. Excluding the charges, analysts polled by Thomson Financial had expected earnings of 29...

SULZBERGER No cutbacks. The New York Times Company yesterday warned of a first-quarter slump, pinning the blame squarely on weak advertising business at the Boston Globe and other Times-owned papers in the region. The warning came as company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. planned a trip to Boston next week, creating anxiety in the newsrooms of the Globe and other New England Newspaper Group papers. The company had said last year that it planned to cut 500 jobs companywide, primarily in the fourth quarter of 2005 and the begining of 2006. The warning was a "disaster," according to Ed Atorino,...

ARAB RACISM & ISLAMIC JIHAD!!! Are Militant Muslims DECAPITATING Tourists in S. Philippines? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam attack Arab Kuwaiti 'brothers' tortured them horrifically? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Sadistic Saddam BUTCHER/GASSED/TORTURED HIS OWN PEOPLE? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Do Arab Muslim Militant Hamas/Islamic-Jihad/other 'Palestinian' Militants (& often Fatah - connected to the official 'Palestinian' authority) TARGET BABIES, (not as the West targets terrorists) Yes or no? IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM + JIHAD!!! Did Arab Islamists attack French subways? (1985) IT'S ARAB MUSLIM FANATICS' RACISM +...

John Roberts, Supreme Court nominee, wrote in his teens that he didn't want girls admitted to his parochial school because he didn't want to study Shakespeare's racier passages with "a blonde giggling and blushing behind me." He wins the Let's Hope He Grew Out of It Prize.

St. Eileen the Self-Righteous is at it again, trashing John Kerry for his suggestion that the Massachusetts Democratic Party's endorsement of same-sex marriage might make the party look too far left. Message to Ms. McNamara--Kerry is NOT trying to remake himself as a right-wing archconservative Republican; he simply realizes that the Democratic Party in this state will set itself up for another loss in '06 if it alienates moderate voters...