Striving Globe

In 1970, the management of the Boston Globe assembled the editorial staff for a candid self-study session at the Brandegee estate of the National Academy of Arts and Sciences University. One result was formation of a six-reporter "Brandegee goose-'em committee," the purpose of which was to "keep editors on their toes, to keep them mad and unsatisfied." That restless spirit has been typical of the Globe in recent years, and this week the paper got another prod toward self-improvement: the death of its traditional rival, the Herald Traveler.

The demise of the 125-year-old Herald leaves the Globe morning and afternoon papers in head-to-head competition with expanded Hearst entries. The chain bought the name and relatively modern plant of the Herald and this week transformed its tabloid Record American into standard-size papers: the morning Herald Traveler and Record American and, for variety, the afternoon Record American and Herald Traveler. "Strangely enough," says Globe Editor Thomas Winship, "it looks like we may now have more competition, not less."

Vivacity. The Globe figures to pick up about a quarter of the old Herald's circulation of 192,000 (the Globe sells 417,000 on weekdays, 546,000 on Sundays). The Globe has been steadily improving for several years. It won a Pulitzer Prize in 1966 for its coverage of the Kennedy family's efforts to promote a federal judgeship for an old retainer, and picked up another this spring for an expose of corruption in Somerville, Mass. "The death of the Herald" says Winship, "should enable us to put out a much better newspaper." As a first step, he has hired nine of the Herald's best people. Winship also plans to enlarge the paper's newshole, streamline the bulky Sunday edition, and give even more push to the morning staff's already energetic investigative crew.

The Globe's strivings for both vivacity and quality result from the happy association of Winship and the Taylor family. Publisher Davis Taylor is content to give his editors considerable leeway and solid financial backing. The Herald management diverted attention and resources into the long, doomed fight to save its broadcasting license (TIME, May 8); the Taylors have sold much of their interest in Kaiser-Globe Broadcasting and invested proceeds in a $6,000,000 expansion of the newspaper.

Weathermen. Since becoming editor seven years ago, Winship has given direction to a paper that was once singularly haphazard. His success surprised some staffers, who initially regarded him as a lightweight. City-room cynics used to grumble that he had married his money (Elizabeth Coolidge, who writes an advice column for the paper) and inherited his job (his father, Laurence, edited the Globe from 1955 to 1965). He was also criticized for being less than overwhelmingly cerebral.

Perhaps. But, says Assistant Managing Editor Tim Leyland, "while he is not your intellectual aristocrat, he is a catalyzer. He's got a good grasp of trends and movement in society." Winship, 51, has made the paper sensitive to these trends and has also been receptive to the ideas of younger journalists. Last year he appointed a 29-year-old as metropolitan editor of the morning edition. "These brainy kids in the newsroom are our salvation," he told the American Society of Newspaper Editors. "They write better than we do, they know more than we do, and they are intellectually more honest."

To give encouragement to his "city-room Weathermen," as he calls them, Winship frequently sends out "tiger notes," which invariably begin: "Terrific job, Tiger. Keep 'em coming." The fact that the editor frequently wears rumpled seersucker, odd slacks and boots doesn't hurt rapport either. Not that generational and ideological friction is completely absent. Radical Columnist David Deitch was recently removed from the Op-Ed page. Winship explained that the change was to make room for contributions from Ralph Nader and the Black Congressional Caucus; Deitch charged that the paper could no longer swallow his attacks on the Boston financial establishment.

One argument led to another, and Winship threatened to fire Deitch, but relented after activist community groups that admire Deitch twice stormed the Globe's newsroom. The columnist now has a spot four times a week on the financial page. When a group of antiwar staffers wanted to buy an ad demanding Richard Nixon's impeachment, Winship balked. The result was a compromise in which the Op-Ed page one day was given over to a debate between the pro-impeachment faction and the paper's chief editorialist.

While the Globe encourages such provocative debate and has been vehemently antiwar--it printed portions of the Pentagon papers which it obtained independently--Winship has no grandiose ambitions to make the paper primarily national in its coverage or concerns. In fact, the Globe is often spotty even in covering New England, and too rarely assigns reporters out of the state. Winship wants to change that, "to turn the Globe into the best regional paper in America." Given the state of New England journalism, achieving that goal would be a major contribution.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.