Editing Boston Herald (section)

==History==
[[Image:Old Boston Herald Building.png|thumb|The old Herald headquarters, built in 1878, at 255 Washington Street]]
The ''Herald''{{'s}} history traces back through two lineages, the ''[[Boston Daily Advertiser|Daily Advertiser]]'' and the old ''Boston Herald'', and two media moguls, [[William Randolph Hearst]] and [[Rupert Murdoch]].

===Founding===
The original ''Boston Herald'' was founded in 1846 by a group of Boston printers jointly under the name of John A. French & Company. The paper was published as a single two-sided sheet, selling for one cent. Its first editor, [[William O. Eaton]], just 22 years old, said "The ''Herald'' will be independent in politics and religion; liberal, industrious, enterprising, critically concerned with literacy and dramatic matters, and diligent in its mission to report and analyze the news, local and global."

In 1847, the ''Boston Herald'' absorbed the Boston ''American Eagle''.<ref>{{Citation | last = King | first = Moses | title =  King's Hand-book of Boston ...: Profusely Illustrated |  pages = 268–269| publisher = Moses King | location = Cambridge, Ma | year = 1881}}</ref>

===''The Boston Herald and Boston Journal''===
In October 1917, John H. Higgins, the publisher and treasurer of the Boston Herald<ref>''The New York Times'' "James H. Higgins, Retired Publisher; Also Was Treasurer of Boston Herald for 10 Years After Merger With Traveler DIES AT CENTRAL VALLEY In 1917 He Bought ''[[The Boston Journal]]'' and Consolidated It With The Herald".  ''The New York Times'', page 13, August 1, 1938.</ref> bought out its next door neighbor ''[[The Boston Journal]]'' and created ''The Boston Herald and Boston Journal''<ref>''The New York Times'' "Boston Papers Merged.; Herald Absorbs The Journal and Will Use the Joint Title". ''The New York Times'', page 12, October 6, 1917.</ref>

===''The American Traveler''===
Even earlier than the ''Herald'', the weekly ''American Traveler'' was founded in 1825 as a bulletin for [[stagecoach]] listings.<ref name="Stanwood 1886 104">{{Citation | last = Stanwood | first = Edward | title =  Boston Illustrated: Containing Full Descriptions of the City and Its Immediate Suburbs, Its Public Buildings and Institutions, Business Edifices, Parks and Avenues, Statues, Harbor and Islands, Etc., Etc. With Numerous Historical Allusions |  page = 104| publisher = Houghton, Mifflin and Co, The Riverside Press | year = 1886| location = Boston, Ma, New York, N.Y., Cambridge, Ma}}</ref>

===The ''Boston Evening Traveller''===
{{Main|Boston Evening Traveller}}
The ''Boston Evening Traveler'' was founded in 1845. The '' Boston Evening Traveler'' was the successor to the weekly ''American Traveler'' and the semi-weekly ''Boston Traveler''.<ref name="King 1881 267">{{Citation | last = King | first = Moses | title =  King's Hand-book of Boston ...: Profusely Illustrated |  page = 267| publisher = Moses King | location = Cambridge, Ma | year = 1881}}</ref> In 1912, the ''Herald'' acquired the ''Traveler'', continuing to publish both under their own names. For many years, the newspaper was controlled by many of the investors in [[United Shoe Machinery Corporation]]. After a newspaper strike in 1967, Herald-Traveler Corp. suspended the afternoon ''Traveler'' and absorbed the evening edition into the Herald to create the ''Boston Herald Traveler.''

===''The Boston Daily Advertiser''===
[[Image:Boston Advertiser Building.png|thumb|right| The old ''Boston Advertiser'' Building]]
The ''Boston Daily Advertiser'' was established in 1813 in Boston by [[Nathan Hale (journalist)|Nathan Hale]]. The paper grew to prominence throughout the 19th century, taking over other Boston area papers. In 1832 The Advertiser took over control of ''The Boston Patriot'', and then in 1840 it took over and absorbed ''The [[Boston Gazette]]''.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Newspapers |volume= 19 | pages = 544&ndash;581; see page 567 |quote=3. Newspapers of the United States....Massachusetts. }}</ref> The paper was purchased by [[William Randolph Hearst]] in 1917. In 1920 the ''Advertiser'' was merged with ''The Boston Record'', initially the combined newspaper was called the ''Boston Advertiser'' however when the combined newspaper became an illustrated tabloid in 1921 it was renamed ''The Boston American''.<ref>{{Citation | first = Frederic | last = Hudson | title =  American Journalism, 1690-1940 | pages = 661–662| publisher = Routledge | location = New York, N.Y. | year = 2000 | isbn=0-415-22894-8 }}</ref>  Hearst Corp. continued using the name ''Advertiser'' for its Sunday paper until the early 1970s.

===''The Boston Record''===
{{main|The Boston Record}}
On September 3, 1884, ''The Boston Evening Record'' was started by the ''Boston Advertiser'' as a campaign newspaper. The ''Record'' was so popular that it was made a permanent publication.<ref name="Stanwood 1886 104" />

===''The Boston American''===
In 1904, William Randolph Hearst began publishing his own newspaper in Boston called ''The American''. Hearst ultimately ended up purchasing the ''Daily Advertiser'' in 1917. By 1938, the ''Daily Advertiser'' had changed to the ''Daily Record'', and ''The American'' had become the ''Sunday Advertiser''. A third paper owned by Hearst, called the ''Afternoon Record'', which had been renamed the ''Evening American'', merged in 1961 with the ''Daily Record'' to form the ''Record American''. The ''Sunday Advertiser'' and ''Record American'' would ultimately be merged in 1972 into ''The Boston Herald Traveler'' a line of newspapers that stretched back to the old ''Boston Herald''.[https://www.bostonherald.com/2012/01/28/the-boston-herald-a-company-history/]

===''The Boston Herald Traveler''===
In 1946, Herald-Traveler Corporation acquired Boston radio station [[WEEI (AM)|WHDH]]. Two years later, WHDH-FM was licensed, and on November 26, 1957, [[WHDH-TV (defunct)|WHDH-TV]] made its debut as an [[American Broadcasting Company|ABC]] affiliate on channel 5. In 1961, WHDH-TV's affiliation switched to [[CBS]]. The television station operated for years beginning some time after under temporary authority from the [[Federal Communications Commission]]. Controversy arose over luncheon meetings the newspaper's chief executive purportedly had with [[John C. Doerfer]], chairman of the FCC between 1957 and 1960, who served as a commissioner during the original licensing process. (Some Boston broadcast historians accuse ''[[The Boston Globe]]'' of being covertly behind the proceeding as a sort of vendetta for not getting a license—The ''Herald Traveler'' was Republican in sympathies, and the ''Globe'' then had a firm policy of not endorsing political candidates, although Doerfer's history at the FCC also lent suspicions.) The FCC ordered comparative hearings, and in 1969 a competing applicant, Boston Broadcasters, Inc., was granted a construction permit to replace WHDH-TV on channel 5. Herald-Traveler Corporation fought the decision in court—by this time, revenues from channel 5 were all but keeping the newspaper afloat—but lost its final appeal. On March 19, 1972, WHDH-TV was forced to surrender channel 5 to the new [[WCVB-TV]].

===''The Boston Herald Traveler and Record American''===
Without a television station to subsidize the newspaper, the ''Herald Traveler'' was no longer able to remain in business, and the newspaper was sold to [[Hearst Corporation]], which published the rival all-day newspaper, the ''Record American''. The two papers were merged to become an all-day paper called the ''Boston Herald Traveler and Record American'' in the morning and ''Record American and Boston Herald Traveler'' in the afternoon. The first editions published under the new combined name were those of June 19, 1972. The afternoon edition was soon dropped and the unwieldy name shortened to ''Boston Herald American'', with the Sunday edition called the ''Sunday Herald Advertiser''. The ''Herald American'' was printed in [[broadsheet]] format, and failed to target a particular readership; where the ''Record American'' had been a typical city [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid]], the ''Herald Traveler'' was a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] paper.

===Murdoch purchases ''The Herald American''===
The ''Herald American'' converted to [[Tabloid (newspaper format)|tabloid]] format in September 1981,<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Brian |first1=Dave |title='Herald' to Boston: Try this |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1981-09-15_10_37/mode/1up |access-date=April 17, 2024 |work=The Boston Phoenix |date=September 15, 1981}}</ref> but Hearst faced steep declines in circulation and advertising. The company announced it would close the ''Herald American''—making Boston a one-newspaper town—on December 3, 1982. When the deadline came, Australian-born media baron [[Rupert Murdoch]] was negotiating to buy the paper and save it. He closed on the deal after 31 hours of talks with Hearst and newspaper unions<ref>{{cite news |last1=O'Brian |first1=Dave |last2=Matza |first2=Michael |title=Back to Life |url=https://archive.org/details/sim_boston-phoenix_1982-12-07_11_49/mode/1up |access-date=October 7, 2024 |date=December 7, 1982}}</ref>—and five hours after Hearst had sent out notices to newsroom employees telling them they were terminated. The newspaper announced its own survival the next day with a full-page headline: "You Bet We're Alive!"<ref name="NEPA">"Purcell Toasts 25th Anniversary of Herald's Survival". [https://wayback.archive-it.org/all/20080216031818/http://www.nepa.org/Bulletin%20Archives/NEPA_Bulletin_Dec07.pdf ''NEPA Bulletin'']  (Boston, Mass.), December 2007, page 11.</ref>

===The ''Boston Herald''===
Murdoch changed the paper's name back to the ''Boston Herald''. The ''Herald'' continued to grow, expanding its coverage and increasing its circulation until 2001, when nearly all newspapers fell victim to declining circulations and revenue.

===Independent ownership===
In February 1994, Murdoch's [[News Corporation (1980–2013)|News Corporation]] was forced to sell the paper, in order that its subsidiary [[Fox Television Stations]] could legally consummate its purchase of [[Fox Broadcasting Company|Fox]] affiliate [[WFXT-TV|WFXT]] (Channel 25) because Massachusetts Senator [[Ted Kennedy]] included language in an appropriations bill barring one company from owning a newspaper and television station in the same market.<ref>{{cite news|last=Gold|first=Allan R.|title=Kennedy vs. Murdoch: Test of Motives|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/11/us/kennedy-vs-murdoch-test-of-motives.html?pagewanted=all|access-date=November 22, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 11, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|last=Gold|first=Allan R.|title=Kennedy and Paper Battle in Boston|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1988/01/07/us/kennedy-and-paper-battle-in-boston.html|access-date=November 22, 2012|newspaper=The New York Times|date=January 7, 1988}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|last=Lenzner|first=Robert|title=Rupert Murdoch,The Boston Globe, And Me|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertlenzner/2011/08/06/rupert-murdochthe-boston-globe-and-me/|work=Forbes|access-date=November 22, 2012}}</ref>  [[Patrick J. Purcell]], who was the publisher of the ''Boston Herald'' and a former [[News Corporation (1980–2013)|News Corporation]] executive, purchased the ''Herald'' and established it as an independent newspaper. Several years later, Purcell would give the ''Herald'' a suburban presence it never had by purchasing the money-losing [[Community Newspaper Company]] from [[Fidelity Investments]]. Although the companies merged under the banner of Herald Media, Inc., the suburban papers maintained their distinct editorial and marketing identity.

After years of operating profits at Community Newspaper and losses at the ''Herald'', Purcell in 2006 sold the suburban chain to newspaper conglomerate Liberty Group Publishing of Illinois, which soon after changed its name to [[GateHouse Media]]. The deal, which also saw GateHouse acquiring ''[[The Patriot Ledger]]'' and ''[[The Enterprise (Brockton)|The Enterprise]]'' respectively in south suburban [[Quincy, Massachusetts|Quincy]] and [[Brockton, Massachusetts|Brockton]], netted $225 million for Purcell, who vowed to use the funds to clear the ''Herald''<nowiki>'s</nowiki> debt and reinvest in the Paper.<ref>Bailey, Steve, and Robert Gavin. [https://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/05/06/heralds_owner_to_sell_suburban_papers_deal_is_put_at_225m/ "Herald's Owner to Sell Suburban Papers"]. ''The Boston Globe'', May 6, 2006.</ref>

===Boston Herald Radio===
On August 5, 2013, the ''Herald'' launched an internet radio station named Boston Herald Radio, which includes shows hosted by much of the ''Herald'' staff.<ref>Joe Dwinell. [http://www.bostonherald.com/business/media_marketing/2013/07/herald_internet_radio_to_get_boston_connected]. ''The Boston Herald'', July 29, 2013.</ref><ref>Alyssa Martino [http://commonwealthmagazine.org/politics/012-bostons-online-radio-frontier/]. ''CommonWealth Magazine'', August 7, 2013.</ref> The station's morning lineup is simulcast on 830 AM [[WCRN]] from 10 am Eastern time to 12 noon Eastern time.

===Bankruptcy===
In December 2017, the ''Herald'' announced plans to sell itself to [[GateHouse Media]] after filing for [[Chapter 11, Title 11, United States Code|chapter 11 bankruptcy]] protection. The deal was scheduled to be completed by February 2018, with the new company streamlining and having layoffs in coming months.<ref>{{cite news |author=Staff Writer |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2017/12/08/boston-herald-declares-bankruptcy-agrees-sold/936185001/ |title=Boston Herald declares bankruptcy, agrees to be sold |work=[[USA Today]] |publisher=[[Associated Press]] |date=2017-12-08 |access-date=2017-12-11 }}</ref><ref>{{cite news |last=Dowling |first=Brian |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2017/12/judge_approves_herald_to_continue_business_as_usual |title=Judge approves Herald to continue business as usual |work=Boston Herald |date=2017-12-14 |access-date=2017-12-14 }}</ref> However, in early January 2018, another potential buyer, Revolution Capital Group of Los Angeles, filed a bid with the federal bankruptcy court; the ''Herald'' reported in a press release that "the court requires BHI [Boston Herald, Inc.] to hold an auction to allow all potential buyers an opportunity to submit competing offers."<ref name=SecondBidder>{{cite news |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/business/business_markets/2018/01/second_potential_buyer_makes_offer_for_boston_herald |title=Second potential buyer makes offer for Boston Herald |first=Brian |last=Dowling |newspaper=Boston Herald |date=January 2, 2018 |access-date=January 2, 2018}}</ref>

=== Digital First Media acquisition ===
In February 2018, acquisition of the ''Herald'' by [[Digital First Media]] for almost $12 million was approved by the bankruptcy court judge in Delaware. The new owner, DFM, said they would be keeping 175 of the approximately 240 employees the ''Herald'' had when it sought bankruptcy protection in December 2017.<ref>{{cite news |last=Chesto |first=Jon |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/business/2018/02/16/boston-herald-sale-digital-first-media-blessed-bankruptcy-court/Ihni8jDK5GMkO4CLRCd6cL/story.html |title=Boston Herald sale to Digital First Media blessed by bankruptcy court |work=[[The Boston Globe]] |date=2018-02-16 |access-date=2018-02-17 }}</ref> The acquisition was completed on March 19, 2018.<ref name=march19/>

The Herald and parent DFM were criticized for ending the ten-year printing contract<ref>{{cite web |title=Herald, Globe agree to printing deal |url=http://www.bostonherald.com/business/media_marketing/2013/06/herald_globe_agree_to_printing_deal |website=Boston Herald |date=June 19, 2013 |access-date=16 August 2018 |language=en}}</ref> with competitor ''[[The Boston Globe]]'',<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seiffert |first1=Don |last2=Ryan |first2=Greg |title=After sale to Digital First, Boston Herald will end Globe print deal |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/03/17/after-sale-to-digital-first-boston-herald-will-end.html |website=Boston Business Journal |access-date=16 August 2018}}</ref> moving printing from [[Taunton, Massachusetts]], to [[Rhode Island]]<ref>{{cite web |last1=Glatter |first1=Hayley |title=The Herald Will Stop Relying on the Globe for Printing |url=https://www.bostonmagazine.com/news/2018/03/19/boston-herald-globe-printing/ |website=Boston Magazine |access-date=16 August 2018 |date=19 March 2018}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Seiffert |first1=Don |last2=Ryan |first2=Greg |title=Boston Business Journal |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/03/17/after-sale-to-digital-first-boston-herald-will-end.html |website=www.bizjournals.com |access-date=16 August 2018}}</ref> and its "dehumanizing cost-cutting efforts" in personnel.<ref>{{cite web |last1=DeCosta-Klipa |first1=Nik |title=Inside the 'dehumanizing' cost-cutting efforts by new ownership at the Boston Herald |url=https://www.boston.com/news/media/2018/05/15/boston-herald-digital-first-media |website=Boston.com |access-date=16 August 2018 |date=15 May 2018}}</ref> In June, some design and advertising layoffs were expected, with work moving to a sister paper, ''[[The Denver Post]]''.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ryan |first1=Greg |title=Digital First planning additional layoffs at Boston Herald |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/06/13/digital-first-planning-additional-layoffs-at.html |website=Boston Business Journal |access-date=16 August 2018}}</ref> The "consolidation" took effect in August, with nine jobs eliminated.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Seifert |first1=Don |title=Boston Business Journal |url=https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/08/16/boston-herald-lays-off-most-of-its-advertising.html |website=www.bizjournals.com |access-date=16 August 2018}}</ref>

In late August 2018, it was announced that the ''Herald'' would move its offices from Boston's [[Seaport District]] to [[Braintree, Massachusetts]], in late November or early December.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.boston.com/news/media/2018/08/28/the-boston-herald-is-moving-to-braintree |title=The Boston Herald is moving to Braintree |newspaper=[[The Boston Globe]] |via=[[Boston.com]] |date=August 28, 2018 |access-date=August 29, 2018}}</ref>

On October 27, 2020, the ''Boston Herald'' endorsed [[Donald Trump]] for the [[2020 United States presidential election|2020 U.S. Presidential Election]].<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.bostonherald.com/2020/10/27/the-herald-endorses-president-trump/amp/|title = Editorial: The Herald endorses Trump|date = October 27, 2020}}</ref>

In July 2024, the newspaper laid off three employees. It is not publicly known how many people still work at the ''Boston Herald'', but the newsroom in 2020 consisted of 24 employees. A few years prior, the paper employed 240 people.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Ryan |first=Aidan |last2= |first2= |last3= |last4= |first4= |date=July 9, 2024 |title=The Boston Herald lays off three employees |url=https://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/07/09/business/boston-herald-layoffs-2024/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=The Boston Globe |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Kennedy |first=Dan |date=2024-07-10 |title=The Boston Herald’s hedge fund owner cuts three jobs |url=https://dankennedy.net/2024/07/10/the-boston-heralds-hedge-fund-owner-cuts-three-jobs/ |access-date=2024-07-15 |website=Media Nation |language=en-US}}</ref>