Here's an interesting story which may signal the start of a very disturbing trend. In what is clearly a reaction to more and more people turning to online sources as their primary information outlets, The Boston Globe, the paper of record for Boston and arguably most of New England, is proposing to its employees a new contract that would tie wages to the paper's financial performance. The Boston Newspaper Guild, a union representing nearly 1000 editorial staff is voting today whether or not to take the deal.
Wow...talk about the erosion of editorial and advertising's "Church and State" lines. What happens when formerly objective reporters feel obligated to cover only the companies that advertise with the Globe? Will smaller, innovative but less deep-pocketed companies now be completely ignored? How does PR compete for a reporter's attention when the issues on the table are to get your client coverage vs. the reporter's need to generate his or her salary?
We'll follow this story closely today and provide updates as we can.
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