In an echo of the infamous “Ford to City: Drop Dead” headline that a New York paper ran across its front page when the bankrupt city was about to be pushed off a financial cliff by the Ford administration, the august New York Times is pretty much saying the same thing to the Boston Globe: Drop Dead–it’ll be cheaper that way!

The Times owns the Globe but is threatening to close it down unless it extracts still more concessions from the Globe’s embattled employees who already are practically putting out the paper for free.

The Globe’s editorial union, the Boston Newspaper Guild, has rejected the latest proposed cuts from the Times: an 8.4 percent cut in pay plus at least one week per year of unpaid furloughs.

So the Times is now saying it will cut the pay next week of union members by 23 percent.

It also makes very real the possibility of the demise of the 137 year old Globe…which would leave Boston with only one other major daily newspaper, the tabloid Herald, which is just about right for wrapping fish in…small fish!

Will be interesting to see if the great New York Times ends up closing one of the nation’s best and best known newspapers!!

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