The Boston Globe’s business model is from the pages of Philip K. Dick’s novel Martian Time-Slip

Not surprisingly, the brain trust at The New York Times Company, which owns The Boston Globe newspaper, lacked the financial aptitude and political courage to shut down the beleagured broadside at midnight on Sunday, May 3, 2009, even though the largest union of workers, the Boston Newspaper Guild, failed to agree to management’s demands. If all goes according to The New York Times Company's plan, management will settle with the union, continue to print and deliver a daily edition of The Boston Globe that generates decreasing advertising revenue, and loose a projected $50 million this year.

This antiquated business model reminds me of a lengthy passage in SF author Philip K. Dick’s novel Martian Time-Slip (1964). You know the passage, the one I posted back in January 2009 about character Arnie Kott, king of the plumbing union on Mars, who enjoys reading a printed copy of The New York Times, Sunday edition, complete with a quarter-page advertisement listing all of the job skills in demand on the Red Planet.