The Boston Globe

• 1. Founding And Early Growth

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  Six Boston businessmen pooled $150,000 to launch The Boston Globe on the 4th of March 1872. Eben Dyer Jordan of the Jordan Marsh department store and Cyrus Wakefield of the Wakefield Rattan Company were among the original investors. The first issue sold for four cents and appeared as a morning daily. Charles H. Taylor joined as temporary business manager in August 1873 before signing a contract as general manager that December. He served as publisher until his death in 1921, establishing a family dynasty that controlled the paper for over a century. By the 1890s, editorial staff was dominated by Irish American Catholics who shaped the paper's early identity. The Globe began its Sunday edition in 1877 and launched an afternoon version called The Boston Evening Globe in 1878. This afternoon publication ceased operations in 1979 after more than a century of existence. A weekly edition called The Boston Weekly Globe catered to mail subscribers outside the city from 1873 until it merged with the Sunday edition in 1892.

• 2. Ownership Transitions And Sales

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  The newspaper remained privately held under the Taylor family until 1973 when it went public as Affiliated Publications. In 1993, The New York Times Company purchased the paper for $1.1 billion, making it one of the most expensive print acquisitions in United States history. Jordan and Taylor families received substantial stock in The New York Times Company during this transaction. By 1999, the last Taylor family members had left management entirely. The paper lost over 90% of its value between 1993 and 2013 despite being owned by a major media conglomerate. John W. Henry acquired The Boston Globe in July 2013 for $70 million through his New England Sports Network group. He took ownership on the 24th of October 2013, renaming the venture Boston Globe Media. Henry also owns the Boston Red Sox and Liverpool F.C., creating an unusual cross-sport-media ownership structure. The sale price reflected decades of declining circulation and changing reader habits that eroded traditional newspaper revenue models. The Globe's chief print rival remains the Boston Herald, whose circulation is smaller and shrinking faster than the Globe's own numbers.

• 3. Pulitzer Prize Winning Investigations

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  Globe reporters Michael Rezendes, Matt Carroll, Sacha Pfeiffer and Walter Robinson uncovered the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal between 2001 and 2003. Their work focused especially on Massachusetts churches where priests systematically abused children while church officials covered it up. Editor Ben Bradlee Jr. led the investigation team that won the Pulitzer Prize for Public Service in 2003. The entire newspaper staff shared this award for their courageous coverage of sexual abuse by priests in the Roman Catholic Church. This reporting became the basis for the 2015 Academy Award-winning film Spotlight named after the paper's investigative division. Charlie Savage won the National Reporting Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for his reports on President Bush's use of signing statements. Gareth Cook received the Explanatory Reporting prize in 2005 for explaining complex scientific and ethical dimensions of stem cell research. The paper has now won 27 Pulitzer Prizes total, making it one of the most decorated newspapers in American history. Earlier awards included recognition for covering the Boston school desegregation crisis in 1975 and exposing political favoritism in Somerville in 1972.

• 4. Editorial Stance And Political Influence

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  The Globe made its first political endorsement in 1967 supporting Kevin White in that year's Boston mayoral election. Since then, the paper has consistently endorsed Democratic presidential candidates including Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election. However, they have sometimes backed Republicans in state and local elections like Charlie Baker for governor. Former editorial page editor Renée Loth described the paper as progressive on social issues while maintaining nuance on economic matters. The Globe supports woman's rights, opposes the death penalty, and backs gay rights according to Loth's description. Yet the paper also supports charter schools and business-backed tax breaks showing positions beyond simple liberal stereotypes. In March 1980, an accidental headline reading "Mush from the Wimp" during a press run about President Jimmy Carter drew national attention. The editorial pages became separate from news operations starting in 1981 following industry custom. Publisher Richard H. Gilman was the first non-Taylor family member to become publisher in 1999. James Dao took over as editorial page editor in 2022 succeeding Bina Venkataraman who had held the position since November 2022.

• 5. Digital Transformation And Online Presence

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  Boston.com launched on the World Wide Web in 1995 becoming one of the first regional news portals supported by advertising. The site won two regional Emmy Awards in 2009 for its video work and consistently ranked among top ten newspaper websites in America. In September 2011, The Boston Globe launched a dedicated subscription-based website at bostonglobe.com with a paywall. Between September 2011 and March 2014, the paper gradually withdrew stories written by Globe journalists from Boston.com to create separation between the sites. BostonGlobe.com uses responsive design that automatically adapts layout to device screen sizes making it accessible across platforms. As of December 2021, the Globe had 226,000 digital subscribers among the highest numbers for any metro newspapers nationwide. The paper also operates specialized websites including Crux covering Catholic Church news and Stat focusing on health and biotechnology industries. Crux launched in September 2014 but ended its association with The Globe in March 2016 transferring ownership to the Crux staff. Stat began operations in 2015 employing journalists across multiple cities including Washington D.C., New York City and San Francisco.

• 6. Scandals And Journalistic Ethics

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  Columnist Patricia Smith resigned in 1998 after fabricating people and quotations in several of her columns. Mike Barnicle was suspended and forced to resign in August 1998 for copying material from George Carlin's book Brain Droppings. Editors found Barnicle had fabricated a story about two cancer patients which damaged his credibility permanently. Jeff Jacoby faced suspension in 2000 for failing to credit non-original content used in his column. In 2004, the Globe apologized for printing graphic photographs representing U.S. soldiers raping Iraqi women during the Iraq War from an unverified city councilor presentation. These photos were later discovered to come from an internet pornography site rather than actual war footage. Barbara Stewart retracted a story in spring 2005 describing events of a seal hunt near Halifax that never occurred due to weather delays. Columnist Kevin Cullen was suspended in 2018 for embellishing claims he made on radio and public appearances related to the Boston Marathon bombing. These incidents collectively damaged the paper's reputation despite its many journalistic achievements and awards.