On my way to a Boston trade show last April, I stopped for a visit at the Morrissey Boulevard complex of the Boston Globe. My visit was hosted by Richard Chacón, who was then the Globe Ombudsman. Richard toured me around the huge Globe complex and gave me some insight into how the newspaper comes together each day.

For 2 years I have authored the blog 'Squaring the Boston Globe' which is usually quite critical of the paper. Did Richard expect that, like Jonah in the belly of the whale, I would repent my past criticism after spending a just few hours at the Globe? Hardly.

He did believe, though, that having some insight into the Globe’s workings would make any criticism more informed. I hope he was right. So here is a first impression -- the points that stick in my mind after seeing the Globe in operation for the first time.

The Globe building has a typically grandiose 1960s corporate lobby full of granite, marble, and other signs of organizational pride. There is a huge stone map of New England on the rear wall and another wall has a huge fabric tapestry containing an image of the front page of the Globe from April 4, 1872. This may be the first paper since the continuous production of the Globe or have some other historic significance, I’m not sure. 

I spent some time reading the 1872 paper, and much of the front page is devoted to covering the content of the Sunday sermons that were delivered in various Boston churches the day before. How times do change.

A Chance Meeting
While I was waiting in the lobby to meet Richard, I introduced myself to one Globe reporter who was there for a minute. When he found out I was a blogger, he asked me if my blog was one of the “media bias blogs.” I told him it was, and he said that in his opinion “a lot of what may appear as media bias is really a result of laziness, incompetence, or organizational stupidity.”

He related an example of one story that had been growing in importance for about a week. It was not covered by the Globe for several days because the key reporter on that beat was off on vacation and so the Globe’s antenna was impaired.

This is an interesting observation. Everybody who has worked in an organization, large or small, knows that work processes and practices are never all they should beand that these issues always interfere with the organizational mission to some degree. Why should the Globe be any different? It cannot be. Of course we all know of organizations where the burden of organizational dysfunction eventually outweighs the ability to provide value (FEMA comes to mind as an example).