Kerry Holds Hearings On Future Of Newspapers

By Susan Milligan, Boston Globe

Newspaper defenders and new media denizens battled today over who was to blame for the sorry financial state of print journalism, but neither advocates nor lawmakers at a Senate committee hearing had an immediate solution to stop the serial demise of newspapers — including the Boston Globe.

“Welcome, all, to a brave new world,” said a somber-sounding Senator John F. Kerry, who called the hearing. “Today, newspapers look like an endangered species.”

Kerry, a Massachusetts Democrat, immediately shot down the suggestion that he was using his position to call attention to the crisis at the Globe, whose owner, The New York Times Co., threatened to shutter New England’s most prominent paper, citing massive financial losses. Management and union leaders have reached deals for concessions totaling about $20 million, but the proposals have not yet been ratified by union memberships.