Hark, The Herald's Angels Sing

We'll ignore for the moment that it's a crappy paper, but:

Herald faces array of options to keep Boston a two-paper town
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On Monday, the Herald published a front-page message from Purcell in which the publisher declared, "The Boston Herald is here to stay."

The message followed the Herald's announcement that its parent, Herald Media, is selling its chain of suburban papers to an Illinois-based publisher.

GateHouse Media announced Monday it has agreed to buy substantially all the assets of two newspaper groups in a deal shifting ownership of many suburban Boston papers out of Massachusetts. GateHouse will acquire four dailies, 92 non-dailies and 25 specialty publications from a Herald Media subsidiary. Herald Media will lose revenue from the lucrative suburban papers, but gain cash from the sale to support the Herald.
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The Boston Herald ownership's decision to sell off suburban newspapers leaves the metropolitan daily to chart a financial course on its own at a time of declining newspaper circulation and fewer U.S. cities with two dailies.

To survive against The Boston Globe in a city with a big appetite for news, the feisty Herald must continue to emphasize local coverage, reach out to younger readers and strike a different editorial tone than its larger rival, observers say.

But some outsiders say the Herald also may have to consider radical changes, including switching to free distribution or even abandoning newsprint a few years from now in favor of online-only distribution.

"What I would do is make the Herald a 21st Century tabloid newspaper-slash-information source, and put a lot of my focus online," said Tobe Berkovitz, associate dean of Boston University's College of Communication.

Berkovitz said such a move would address the importance of younger, Web-savvy readers to advertisers, and the high rate of Internet use in the Boston area.

Herald Publisher Patrick J. Purcell has said he's open to considering possible free print distribution for his tabloid paper, which sells for 50 cents apiece at newsstands.

While free distribution can draw advertisers looking for a wider audience, it's difficult to offset the loss of revenue from newsstand and subscription sales, said John Morton, of Morton Research Inc., which follows the news industry.

"It is, however, a new strategy that second newspapers in major metro markets can try, because all the other strategies to keep plugging away and relying on paid circulation haven't worked," Morton said.

The Herald's emphasis on shorter stories and local news could help win over readers who don't want the Globe's longer pieces, more serious tone and greater attention to national and international coverage, Morton said.

"Having differentiation is helpful for the second paper, but unfortunately it doesn't always make the difference," Morton said. "History is telling us that most markets can only support one metro daily newspaper."