The Boston Globe will not print and deliver its paper Tuesday morning due to the massive blizzard hitting the east coast, a first for the storied publication.
The paper issued an update on their printing plans Monday evening, where they confirmed that the severe weather forced executives to make the unprecedented decision to halt production. Specifically, the over two feet of snow and fierce winds made it impossible for the Globe’s staff to get to their printing press located in Taunton, Mass. Not to mention, the paper shared that the wintry weather already impacted Monday’s delivery, as only 25% of the papers made it to print subscribers.
“We don’t take the decision lightly,” Josh Russell, vice president of print operations at Boston Globe Media, said. “We’re not confident that even if we got a crew in tonight, that we could get the papers on our trucks safely. We weren’t confident that that last mile would be doable.”
Chris Johnson, the executive director of manufacturing at Boston Globe Publishing Services, shared he tried to head to the facility amid the snow, but got stuck on the way and had to be pulled out by another truck.
“It took me almost two hours to get to the plant and I got a four-wheel drive pickup truck,” he told the Globe Monday. “It was just not going to work. The risk reward is upside down.”
Per the Globe, subscribers for the print edition will have to wait until Wednesday to get their Tuesday paper, along with their scheduled Wednesday edition.
Outside of labor strikes, which halted production a handful of times in the ’50s and ’60s, this reportedly marks the first time management chose to call off production of the paper since it was founded in 1872. In fact, the Globe highlighted that the paper managed to print a few thousand copies during the blizzard of 1978 — though, there were delivery issues due to snow surrounding their old office.
The 2026 blizzard clobbered parts of New England and New York and New Jersey Monday, with some areas getting as much as 30 inches of snow amid high winds and power outages.
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