April 10, 2009 Who or what could replace the Boston Globe? Play video

(NECN: Peter Howe, Boston) Just how indispensable is The Boston Globe? And if it went away, who or what could replace it? The clock is ticking at New England's biggest newspaper on an ultimatum from their New York Times Co. owners. Unions are under orders to give up $20 million in pay and benefits -- including lifetime job guarantees for about 400 employees -- or the Times Co. will close the paper -- as soon as next month.

It might have once been unthinkable. But now media observers are speculating about a Globe-less New England.

Howe: Now, let's be sure to give the Globe proper credit. On Friday's front page is a story the Globe and Boston.com had first that you have been hearing today on NECN, about possible deep service cutbacks at the MBTA as the transit agency faces a fiscal crisis.

It's common to hear NECN and other electronic media and wire services credit the Globe on days they have a story first. Still, even The Globe will tell you today's Globe isn't the journalistic force it was five or ten years ago. And this current crisis created by the Times ultimatum does have people asking: What kind of void would the Globe leave and how might it be filled?

"I think it's where everyone in Boston turns for the news of the day. That's where you start. That's the base,'' says Bruce Mohl. He's a Boston Globe

alumnus and faithful reader. A former State House Bureau Chief for the Globe and Spotlight Team investigative reporter, Mohl now edits massinc.org's CommonWealth magazine, which does more and more of the serious state government and policy coverage the Globe once owned.

"Some days it's not so good. Sometimes there's not so much news in there, you feel like, but on many days it breaks a story that has a real big impact,'' Mohl says of the Globe.

Still, as the Globe's slashed coverage, Commonwealth's ramped up a daily web site called www.cwunbound.org and just hired two new reporters, including a senior investigative reporter.

"We're trying to fill in that gap of big enterprise stories. And maybe other news media could fill in the gap if the Globe were to retreat, which I hope it doesn't,'' Mohl says.

The Boston Herald would surely love to grow in a Globe-less Boston. There's also a lot of chatter that from a strictly dollars-and-cents perspective the smartest move by the Times Co. could be to close the Globe, keep its popular Boston.com website, and create an enhanced New England Edition of its flagship Times paper, with a page or two every day of local Boston content created by current Globe reporters, editors, and photographers. A localized Times might well attract a substantial number of the most affluent Boston-area readers -- those advertisers most want to reach -- who still want to get a printed daily newspaper.

But plenty of other non-newspaper efforts are underway aimed at doing the kind of civic-accountability journalism that was long the Globe's franchise. Legendary Globe reporter Walter V. Robinson's built a Northeastern University student project that's done hard-hitting stories on courts and the Boston Fire Department that have been published in the Globe and online.

Another new investigative reporting team has been launched at Boston University, called The New England Center for Investigative Reporting. It's received a $250,000 grant from the Knight Foundation, and NECN, WBUR and The Globe are also providing resources valued at $250,000 for the center, which is run by former top investigative reporters from WBZ-TV (Joe Bergantino), the Globe (B.U. professors Dick Lehr and Mitchell Zuckoff) and The Boston Herald (Maggie Mulvihill).

The Times and Globe won't comment on the shutdown threat. Globe Publisher P. Steven Ainsley on Friday sent a letter to Globe advertisers aimed at addressing concerns about the reported possible closure. "In these difficult times, we are very committed to continuing as your marketing partner ... We are continuing to strengthen our portfolio of advertising solutions and we are moving full steam ahead on programs that go well into the future ... " Notably, however, no wording in the Ainsley e-mail foreclosed the possibility the Globe newspaper could be closed by May.

Mohl says, "I used to work at the Globe, and anyone who leaves the Globe quickly realizes that the big power of the Globe draws a lot of people who want to get their ideas out there'' and who as a result steer news tips to the dominant regional newspaper.

But could, say, a dozen smaller efforts, including many online, maybe replace one big Globe?

"It's an interesting approach, but I don't think it's like replacing the entire Globe,'' Mohl says. "For instance we come out quarterly [as a magazine] but online, we come out every day, and we're trying to beef up our presence. But we come nowhere near to covering the magnitude of things the Globe does, and I don't think anyone else does either. But if you have 12 smaller people doing it, maybe those people [with news tips] gravitate to the smaller operations -- but I don't know. It's still too early to say.''

Howe: Now to be sure, nothing is ever going to look or feel like a big headline on the front of 300,000 or 500,000 newspapers. But what is clear is that if the Globe ever were to go away, there are a lot of journalists and investigators in the wings who'd like to step up and see if they could have at least some of its impact.

(Note: Howe was a business, technology, politics, and news reporter for the Globe for 22 years before joining NECN in April 2008.)