When Matthew Storin came to the editor’s position in 1993, he sought to make the Globe less liberal, or at least less predictably so. His tenure was marked by both success and scandal. Under Storin, the Globe ended a 10-year Pulitzer drought, winning four prizes. According to a 1999 poll of editors by the Columbia Journalism Review, the Globe was (tied for) the sixth best paper in the country. But in 1998, Storin accepted the resignations of two star columnists who had fabricated quotes and characters.[2] The dual scandals prompted speculation about Storin’s future. He hung on for two more years.
Business side. Meanwhile, the ownership of the paper was changing. In 1993, the Taylor family—owners for 126 years—sold the Globe to the New York Times Company for $1.1 billion, the highest price ever paid for a newspaper. The sale was a blow to a paper that prided itself on independence, and to a city that viewed New York as a rival. As part of the deal, the Times Company agreed not to intervene in the Globe’s operations for five years.
Six years later, it abruptly replaced publisher Benjamin Taylor with one of its own top executives, Richard Gilman. The Taylor family’s day-to-day management of the Globe had come to an end. At a meeting, Globe staffers greeted Gilman with silence; it had “the feeling of a hostile takeover,” according to columnist Ellen Goodman.[3] Gilman was a specialist in circulation and operations, and some analysts saw his appointment as an effort to improve the Globe’s financial performance. The paper, although profitable, had fallen short of goals set by the Times Company. Other analysts said the Times Company simply wanted to broaden control.
By the time Baron took over in the summer of 2001 . . .
http://ccnmtl.columbia.edu/projects/caseconsortium/casestudies/14/casestudy/www/layout/case_id_14_id_139.html
Largely, I have been a fan of the Globe's reporting, tarnished as their history may be. Still, I believe the story would have been left unreported for as long as the Taylor family and Mr. Storin stayed. I think it would be safe to assume that they participated in a conspiracy of silence. You may be right that they chose to disbelieve the allegations. Either way, blind eyes.
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