What’s Digital First going to do next?
By 
The chaos at the Denver Post may be spreading to other Digital First Media properties, including those in Massachusetts.
Chuck Plunkett, who resigned last week as the editor of the Post’s editorial page, said in an op-ed in Rolling Stone that Digital First, which is owned by the hedge fund Alden Global Capital, “is actively debating whether to do away with house editorials in all of its papers across the country.”
Ken Doctor, a respected media columnist who writes for the Nieman Journalism Lab, reported that Digital First Media is preparing another round of spending cuts in the 10 to 15 percent range. Doctor, citing sources, said the latest spending cuts are at least partially a response to financial pressure caused by one of its lenders, who is upset about the bad publicity coming out of Denver and withdrawing from the refinancing of a $225 million credit facility.
Digital First Media owns 98 new outlets across eight states, including Massachusetts where its properties including the Boston Herald, the Lowell Sun, the Valley Dispatch weekly in Lowell, and the Sentinel & Enterprise in Fitchburg.
The national coverage of Plunkett’s attack on his bosses probably saved him his job temporarily, but last week, after disobeying an order not to mention his bosses in an editorial he offered for publication, he quit before he could be fired. His departure folllowed the firing of the editorial page editor of the Boulder Daily Camera, also owned by Digital First, for placing an editorial about his bosses that his bosses wouldn’t run in another publication.
In addition to Plunkett, two other news executives at the Denver Post as well as former owner and editorial page advisor Dean Singleton also stepped down last week. “Everything I believe about the news business is being violated,” said Singleton. “It is breaking my heart.”
All this is happening as Digital First is raking in profits. Doctor said Digital First earned a 17 percent operating margin in fiscal 2017 along with profits of $160 million. “That’s the fruit of the repeated cutbacks that have left its own shrinking newsrooms in a state of rebellion,” Doctor wrote.
In his op-ed for Rolling Stone, Plunkett accused his former bosses of neglect and censorship. He also lamented the sorry state of journalism. “Depending on your bogeyman – whether it’s Trump Nation or P.C. Elitism – the desire to retreat to echo-chamber news outlets has grown,” he wrote. “Local papers look more like advertising supplements filled with content from other sources, and ‘serious journalists’ are considered something only national brands can afford.”
BRUCE MOHL
BEACON HILL
Gov. Charlie Baker says he favors the death penalty for cop killers, but the “politically milquetoast governor” hasn’t filed any legislation to “back up his bluster,” says Hillary Chabot. (Boston Herald)
MUNICIPAL MATTERS
A 47-year-old Worcester man pulled his legal handgun on a 20-year-old who appeared to be robbing a woman at gunpoint. During a struggle, the gun went off and a bullet was discharged into the pavement.The alleged robber escaped but was later rounded up by police. (MassLive)
Haverhill’s population is rising faster than other communities in the Merrimack Valley, but housing growth is lagging. (Eagle-Tribune)
Friends and family of two men killed by gang gunfire on Friday in Jamaica Plain bemoan the violence that claimed the lives of two people with no connection to the gang beefs that apparently triggered the shootings. (Boston Herald)
WASHINGTON/NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL
President Trump blasted former secretary of state John Kerry for engaging in what he called “shadow diplomacy” by working to preserve the Iran nuclear agreement as Trump prepares to announce later today whether he will stay with the pact. (Boston Globe)
In a stunningly fast takedown, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a thorn in President Trump’s side and a darling of liberals, resigned just hours after a report in The New Yorker that he physically abused four women with whom he had relationships. (National Review)
Internal EPA emails show agency officials made strong efforts to control public scrutiny of Administrator Scott Pruitt and looked to limit his appearances to “friendly” audiences with no press to limit challenges and unscripted questions. (New York Times)
Oliver North has been named the new president of the NRA. (New York Times)
ELECTIONS
Welcome to the comity club: Incumbent congressman Michael Capuano and challenger Ayanna Pressley square off for the first time and have nothing negative to say about each other. (CommonWealth)
Ryan O’Donnell, the president of the Northampton City Council, said he plans to launch a write-in campaign for the Senate seat just vacated by Stanley Rosenberg. Currently, Democrat Chelsea Kline is the only candidate with her name on the ballot. O‘Donnell had been planning to run for the state rep seat that opened up when Peter Kocot died. (MassLive)
Nashville voters shot down a $5.4 billion transit plan. (Governing)
BUSINESS/ECONOMY
A Lowell Sun editorial slammed the city’s school committee for refusing to take belt-tightening measures with enrollment falling and expenditures rising. The editorial urged the City Council to stand its ground and refuse to provide a taxpayer bailout.
Fall River Mayor Jasiel Correia, surrounded by workers and union officials, pledged to help the soon-to-be displaced Philips Lighting employees find new jobs after the company made a surprising announcement it was closing the Fall River facility and moving the 160 jobs to Mexico and Canada. (Herald News)
Private investors are offering roughly $6.5 billion to take private medical software billing firm athenahealth. (Boston Herald)
EDUCATION
Attorney General Maura Healey has taken control of Roxbury Community College’s fundraising foundation — but nobody is saying what led to the action. (Boston Globe)
The US Attorney’s office in Boston has reached an agreement with Hudson school officials for the district to allow use of robots in classrooms for disabled students who are too sick to go to school. (MetroWest Daily News)
TRANSPORTATION
The MBTA is starting to develop a $3.5 billion Green Line train of the future that will be more standardized, longer, and able to carry more passengers. (CommonWealth)
TransitMatters raises new concerns about the MBTA’s latest plan for the Newton commuter rail stations. (CommonWealth)
ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT
An environmental activist has filed a request for an injunction against lobstermen using vertical buoy lines for their traps because they present a danger of entanglement for right whales in the area. (Cape Cod Times)
Residents near Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano were told to “go now” as fissures developed and earthquakes increased and geologists compared the activity to a period in 1955 when the volcano erupted for 88 days. (Reuters)
Prices for US oil hit $70 a barrel for the first time since 2014, setting the stage for higher costs for gas and consumer goods. (Associated Press)
CASINOS/MARIJUANA
The Massachusetts Gaming Commission rules that Wynn Resorts and Steve Wynn are officially divorced. (CommonWealth)
A Globe editorial says the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe deserve a pathway to a reservation, something that is key to their pursuit of a casino and now in doubt because of a court ruling.
Voters at Rockland Town Meeting approved zoning bylaws that would allow retail marijuana shops in the town’s hotel district, just off Route 3, and imposed a 3 percent tax on sales. (Patriot Ledger)
CRIMINAL JUSTICE/COURTS
The Supreme Judicial Court rules that colleges and universities do have some legal liability to intervene if they know that a student is considering suicide. (Boston Globe)