Worcester Business Journal

wbjournal.com | November 25, 2019 | Worcester Business Journal 3 Worcester Business Journal (ISSN#1063-6595) is published bi-weekly, 24x per year, including 4 special issues in May, September, October, and December by New England Business Media. 172 Shrewsbury St., Worcester, MA 01604. Periodicals postage paid at Worcester, MA. Copyright 2019. All rights reserved. Postmaster: Please send address changes to: Worcester Business Journal, PO Box 330, Congers, NY 10920-9894. Subscriptions: Annual subscriptions are available for $54.95. For more information, please email wbjournal@ cambeywest.com or contact our circulation department at 845-267-3008. Fax: 845.267.3478 Advertising: For advertising information, please call Mark Murray at 508-755-8004 ext. 227. Fax: 508-755-8860. Worcester Business Journal accepts no responsibility for unsolicited manuscripts or materials and in general does not return them to the sender. Worcester Business Journal 172 Shrewsbury Street, Worcester, MA 01604 508-755-8004 tel. • 508-755-8860 fax www.wbjournal.com A division of: Worcester Business Journal WBJ DEPARTMENTS 4 Central Mass. In Brief 12 Focus on Health care 18 Know How 19 Movers & Shakers 20 Photo Finish 21 Opinion Editor, Brad Kane, bkane@wbjournal.com News Editor, Grant Welker, gwelker@wbjournal.com (Higher education, health care) Staff Writer Thomas Grillo, tgrillio@wbjournal.com (Real estate, manufacturing) Contributors Susan Shalhoub, Livia Gershon, Sarah Connell Lead Researcher, Timothy Doyle, tdoyle@nebusinessmedia.com Research Assistant, Heide Martin, hmartin@nebusinessmedia.com Production Director, Kira Beaudoin, kbeaudoin@wbjournal.com Art Director, Mitchell Hayes, mhayes@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Matt Majikas, mmajikas@wbjournal.com Senior Accounts Manager Christine Juetten, cjuetten@wbjournal.com Senior Special Accounts Manager Mary Lynn Bosiak, mlbosiak@wbjournal.com Marketing & Events Manager Kris Prosser, kprosser@wbjournal.com Distribution and Database Coordinator A Guide to STUFF, a publication of New England Business Media Patty Harris, pharris@nebusinessmedia.com COO, Mary Rogers, mrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Manager, Valerie Clark, vclark@nebusinessmedia.com Accounting Assistant, Rae Rogers, rrogers@nebusinessmedia.com Collections Manager, Raki Zwiebel, rzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com Human Resources, Jill Coran, jcoran@nebusinessmedia.com Publisher, CEO, Peter Stanton pstanton@nebusinessmedia.com Associate Publisher, Mark Murray mmurray@wbjournal.com President, Joseph Zwiebel jzwiebel@nebusinessmedia.com O ct. 30, 2019 marked a pro- found and great day in the history of American ideals, which le the heroes at the center of this story jobless. Rather than kowtow to the edicts of its private equity ownership to avoid contro- versial topics, the entire editorial staff of the sports blog Deadspin resigned from their jobs, essentially killing the website. I had been a regular reader of Deadspin, consuming 90% or more of its content. Sure, I'm a sports fan, but that isn't why I chose the site over dozens of others. What made Deadspin great was the virtue at the heart of the blog: Question everything. is virtue should be at the heart of every journalism publication, but this unfortunately isn't the case for most. Cor- porate interests, overworked staff, and the need to appear balanced to both sides have slowly eroded this basic tenant. is matters. Here is a reason why. One of my all-time favorite baseball players is Ty Cobb, who played from 1905 to 1928. e all-time leader in batting average, Cobb was the antithesis to the praise Babe Ruth received for smashing home runs. Since I had always been one to go against the flow, Cobb was the per- fect strong-willed sports idol. For years, though, I had to square my admiration with his reputation as an awful person – a racist who was hated by his teammates and opponents alike and who may have beaten a man to death. is reputation was memorialized in the movie "Cobb." However, this narrative took a hard turn when writer Charles Leerhsen began researching and found nearly all of the unsavory stories about Cobb were untrue and originally came from a writer who had a reputation for plagiarism. In Leerhsen's book "Ty Cobb: A Terrible Beauty" the au- thor shows how this hateful representation of Cobb became considered as fact as oth- er writers, journalists and documentarians never questioned conventional wisdom and simply repeated the claims. Founded in 2005, Deadspin's reputation leaped forward in 2013 when it wrote how the widely publicized story of the deceased girlfriend of Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te'o had been a hoax. As much as the story was a feather in the cap of Deadspin, it was egg on the face for the mainstream sports media – like ESPN and CBS Sports – who repeated the untrue story over and over in fawning articles and videos about Te'o. Deadspin used a brazen style as it chal- lenged widely held beliefs and questioned authority at every turn – or as the site's writers oen said, spoke truth to power. When the NFL denied it had blacklisted quarterback Colin Kapernick because of his protests over police brutality, Deadspin wrote about every inferior quarterback who was playing in the NFL. When a student died while filming the Notre Dame football practice for the team, Deadspin asked why the head coach hadn't moved the practice out of the dangerous con- ditions. When ESPN issued edicts to its commentators to avoid topics potentially harming its partnerships with sports leagues, Deadspin called the sports media giant out. Yet, Deadspin was a lot of fun, too, regularly posting dog videos and – in one of my favorite posts – said the sports highlight of the day was a video where a lizard dely escapes certain death at the clutches of dozens of sea snakes. e demise of Deadspin was swi and brutal. It was bought in April by compa- ny controlled by Boston private equity firm Great Hill Partners. In October, the company's executives told Deadspin to only write about sports, even though anyone who ever spent more than a day reading the blog could tell its appeal lied in its seemingly random but intercon- nected stories, picked by the whims of the wonderful collection of misfits who made up its editorial staff. On Oct. 29, aer its staff refused to stick to sports, the interim editor-in-chief was fired. e next day, all 20 of the blog's editorial staff quit. e Deadspin journalists could have bowed to their owner's demands, following in the paths of countless others who have compromised their morals to maintain a steady income. ey might have carved out some resemblance of the site's old bra- zen voice. But rather than let the blog limp on as a shell of its former self, the Dead- spin staff decided to kill it outright. at was a heroic decision. Everywhere I look, I see diminished journalism. ESPN sold its journalism soul for broadcast rights deals with sports leagues. CNN and Fox News seemingly only exist to antagonize each other and drum up support on opposite sides of the political aisle. In Central Massachusetts, the parent company of the Worcester Telegram & Gazette and the MetroWest Daily News – GateHouse Media – bought the owner of USA Today – Gannett – for $1.4 billion this month, creating the largest newspaper company in the country. Its values don't put journalism at the fore- front, since GateHouse has a history of laying off workers while simultaneously offering financial incentives to sharehold- ers and already is touting the $300 million in cost savings the acquisition will create. is is why I'm grateful for WBJ's inde- pendent ownership. CEO and Co-owner Peter Stanton's office is less than 40 steps from my own. I have a complete under- standing of his priorities for the company, and if conflict ever arises, Peter is a conver- I N T H I S I S S U E sation away. My own style isn't as brazen as Deadspin's, but Peter ultimately has backed WBJ editorial's independence when we have spoken truth to power, like our cover- age of the underrepresentation of women in leadership positions, the lack of people of color in the legal marijuana industry, and the questionable economics behind the Worcester Red Sox stadium deal. ese days, I doubt most journalists have the kind of editorial freedom WBJ provides. As a reader, the demise of Deadspin bums me out. Yet, as a journalist, knowing a group of people stood up for what they believed to the point where it cost them their jobs gives me hope and motivation for the future of the American ideals of freedom and independence. Ten years from now, maybe a handful of people will care about how some journalists quit their sports blog before they would compromise their values; but I will be among those who remember. - Brad Kane, editor W The jobless heroes of a dead sports blog CORRECTIONS: In her Know How advice column "How testimonials shape your business's reputation" on Oct. 28, author Julia Becker Collins' first name was misspelled as Julie. In the Fact Book: Doing Business in Central Mass. special edition on Nov. 4, the map showcasing the region's infrastructure mislabeled the town of Milford as Holliston.

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