Reply #3: 'Boston Globe' Shuts Baghdad Office (security costs)

[ProSense]

'Boston Globe' Shuts Baghdad Office, Others Face Foreign Bureau Cuts

By Joe Strupp

Published: February 22, 2006 12:55 PM ET

NEW YORK Budget constraints that have been reducing newsroom staffs nationwide during the past year are now hitting a number of foreign bureaus, with The Boston Globe closing its Baghdad operation and two of Tribune Co.'s top papers weathering foreign office shutdowns.

Martin Baron, editor of The Globe, said the paper had maintained a room at the Hamra Hotel in Baghdad, but will no longer keep it staffed or financed. While no reporter had worked out of the hotel room on a full-time basis for six months, a driver and translator, as well as security protection, had been kept on staff. "We had maintained a hotel room and infrastructure for periodic visits," Baron said. "We are no longer maintaining that and we are closing that infrastructure. We are giving up the entire apparatus."

Baron would not say if the paper had a reporter elsewhere in Iraq or how much savings would result from shutting the hotel operation. But he confirmed the shutdown was based on cost-cutting needs. "We can't afford to maintain the security," he said. "The Iraq bureau was never intended to be a permanent bureau."

The Globe will continue to operate its four other foreign outlets in Berlin, Colombia, South Africa and Jerusalem. The paper also has a foreign affairs reporter based in Washington, D.C.

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http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1002073187