Friday, February 6, 2009

Boston Globe to Kill -- um, Transition -- Health/Science Section

Months after the Boston Globe reduced the status of its business section as a bundled section within the Metro section, the Globe has announced plans to kill its health/science section, which had appeared on Mondays.

The Boston Phoenix reported that the Boston Globe plans to -- well, not eliminate the coverage, but transition it to its popular g section. Launched recently, the g section is very popular, and includes entertainment, TV listings, arts, comics, etc. And now, health news.

Science coverage will be included in the business section.

The Globe's Caleb Solomon, managing editor, told the Phoenix, Roughly speaking, the paper will have about as much personal-health coverage as it did before. And the same goes for science coverage. "We do a Monday business and innovation section, and as you know, a significant portion of the innovation economy is science driven," he says. "Is coverage of a biotech company business coverage or science coverage?... There will probably be increased science content inside the Monday business section, because that seems to be a natural alignment with the innovation economy of Boston."

However, since the number of pages in the g section will not increase, it's safe to say that health coverage in the Globe will decline -- which is interesting given the importance of biotech is to the Boston economy.

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