Editing Boston Herald (section)

===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>