Blog postings about the Boston Globe tend to be a little negative these days – after all, it isn’t easy to transition to new ways to run a newspaper when your industry model gets scrambled and you have to totally reconstruct how you distribute news and find new ways to get revenue for your content. I don’t envy the Globe, but I wish them well and recognize the importance of their organization to the fabric of New England.
One Globe resource I have taken a new look at in recent months is their online archives. It truly is remarkable – you can see every newspaper printed, every ad, every story. It is an easy service to access if you are a Globe subscriber, and it works great. While digital has thrown the Globe for a loop, it sure has improved accessing their archives. In other words, I don’t miss microfiche.
As a company we at the Village haven’t been the best at archiving our early history; organization and attention to detail are not qualities that inundate dealership offices. So for us, the Globe archives are a godsend. I can pull up early ads, many of which we have no record of on hand. And since the Globe was often our main outlet to circulate news, we can often find out when we added stores or changed strategies by rummaging through our old ads and mentions.
Even if you don’t ever want to get newspaper ink on your hands anymore, make sure you get a digital subscription to the Globe. What a great resource.