off the record

Globe Columnist Charles Pierce Joins Grantland

In the H.R. equivalent of lining up to high-five a rival team after a foul-filled game, Bill Simmons has hired Charles P. Pierce, most recently of The Boston Globe, to write a column for Grantland, despite the pair’s longstanding feud.

It began in November 2009, when Mr. Pierce reviewed Mr. Simmons’s book, The Book of Basketball, on Deadspin. He took the opportunity to knock the messianic sportswriter down a notch.

“He did not reinvent sportswriting,” Mr. Pierce wrote, while allowing that Mr. Simmons was “an amusing writer who saw the vast potential of the Internet before just about anyone not named Gates or Gore.” Read More

Arthur Sulzberger Addresses Times Company Shareholders: ‘It Is This Commitment to Excellence That Will Get Us Through This Turbulent Time’

Today, Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. addressed New York Times Company shareholders at the company’s annual shareholders meeting. It was a week of ups-and-downs for the Times Company, with Monday’s announcement of five Pulitzer Prizes for the flagship paper followed two days later by a dismal quarterly earnings report, which saw the New York Read More

The Times of Beacon Hill, Anyone?

Months before The Boston Globe dedicated its lead news story on April 4 to the New York Times Company’s threat to close the Boston broadsheet, The Globe’s future was discussed in the New York Times Building on Eighth Avenue.

Presumably, more than once, in the office of Times Company CEO Janet Robinson. But at Read More