<\/p>\n
\u201cWe don\u2019t take the decision lightly,\u201d said Josh Russell, vice president of print operations at Boston Globe Media, in an interview. \u201cWe\u2019re not confident that even if we got a crew in tonight, that we could get the papers on our trucks safely. We weren\u2019t confident that that last mile would be doable.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The blizzard also affected Monday\u2019s delivery, with only 25 percent of papers having been delivered to subscribers.<\/span><\/p>\n While print subscribers will get Tuesday\u2019s paper delivered on Wednesday, single copies of the paper will not be available in retail stores, said Jamie Nee, the Globe\u2019s executive director of sales strategy and fulfillment.<\/span><\/p>\n By all accounts, including interviews with longtime pressroom employees and a review of the Globe historical archive, the decision marks the first time that management has called off production of a daily paper since the organization\u2019s founding in 1872. (Labor strikes halted production on a few occasions in the 1950s and \u201860s.)<\/span><\/p>\n Even during the historic Blizzard of \u201878<\/a>, the Globe printed a few thousand copies<\/a> of the Feb. 7, 1978, edition, though its delivery trucks couldn\u2019t get through the piles of snow around its old offices on Morrissey Boulevard.<\/span><\/p>\n The press workers of the Globe, many of whom have worked for the Globe for decades and commute from all over the state, aren\u2019t used to days without a paper. Russell added that during previous storms there has \u201cnever been a question\u201d <\/b>as to whether pressmen and drivers would come in, which speaks to the historic nature of the decision not to publish Tuesday morning and the resilience of the print staff.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThey have a dedication to the process,\u201d Dan Stenstrom, the superintendent of the pressroom who first joined the Globe in 1985, said of his colleagues. \u201cAs much as today gives them pause, they know they\u2019ll be in there tomorrow.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Chris Johnson, executive director of manufacturing at Boston Globe Publishing Services, said on Monday he got stuck on the way to the facility and was pulled out by another truck. Then, that truck and its driver went 30 feet and got stuck, prompting Johnson to help him out of the snow. He also was stopped by a fire truck that couldn\u2019t move off of railroad tracks because the snow was so deep.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt took me almost two hours to get to the plant and I got a four-wheel drive pickup truck,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was just not going to work. The risk reward is upside down.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The decision not to print a paper is rare at any paper.<\/span><\/p>\n Paul Tash, the longtime former chief executive and chair of the Tampa Bay Times, often grappled with printing delays during hurricane season. Sometimes the paper would be late, and sometimes there was no home delivery, but they always managed to get a print edition out in his 47 years there, he said.<\/span><\/p>\n But like many other<\/a> papers<\/a>, faced with a loss of readers and the advertising revenues that followed them, the Times has cut back on print to two days a week<\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIt felt particularly poignant,\u201d Tash said. \u201cWe thought, at the time, we needed to preserve the news or preserve the paper. We stuck with the news.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n The Globe has not been immune to the challenges of the media industry, but it has been able to sustain a seven-day print product while also being one of the rare, profitable newspapers in the country.<\/span><\/p>\n While print readers won\u2019t be able to stain their hands with ink Tuesday, the Globe of course has continued to publish stories online. <\/span><\/p>\n That wasn\u2019t the case in 1978, when the Globe couldn\u2019t get its issue out the door.<\/span><\/p>\n The Globe rallied its staff to put together a paper during the historic 1978 storm, and cheers sprang up across<\/a> the Morrissey Boulevard newsroom \u2014 which the Globe departed in 2017 \u2014 when its presses began to run for the Tuesday, Feb. 7 edition. But the press run was short-lived, as delivery trucks weren\u2019t able to get more than a mile or two from the Dorchester building. <\/span><\/p>\n The snow continued through that Tuesday and Globe staff weren\u2019t able to leave the building, which meant many employees \u2014 including in the newsroom \u2014 found furniture around the building to sleep on. <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cGovernor Dukakis told everyone to stay put, and yet the Globe resumed publication on Wednesday morning,\u201d wrote<\/a> Thomas Gagen, a former chief editorial writer for the Globe, in 2008.<\/span><\/p>\n The Globe\u2019s headquarters are now at 53 State St. in downtown Boston, meaning the paper is no longer printed at the same location as its newsroom. <\/span><\/p>\n While the Globe had printed continuously since 1978, there have been delivery problems over the years. <\/span><\/p>\n Most notably, thousands of Globe subscribers did not receive print editions in 2016 <\/a>for weeks after the Globe switched to a new distribution partner. Staff across the Globe volunteered to deliver papers as top staff worked to fix the problem. <\/span><\/p>\n Catherine Carlock and Jeremiah Manion of the Globe Staff contributed to this report.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n Aidan Ryan can be reached at aidan.ryan@globe.com<\/a>. Follow him @aidanfitzryan<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n