'Boston Herald' Challenges N.Y. Times Co. on Metro Buy

By: (AP) The publisher of the Boston Herald said he will try to block an agreement by the New York Times Co., owner of The Boston Globe, to buy a 49 percent stake in the free daily Metro Boston, saying the deal undermines competition with his paper.

"We are intrigued that The Boston Globe has finally recognized the merits of tabloid newspapers, but the fact is this deal is aimed directly at the Herald," Patrick J. Purcell said in a statement Tuesday. "It is clearly anticompetitive and not in the best interests of the general public or advertisers.

"We intend to contest this on grounds that the largest newspaper in Eastern Massachusetts is making an in-market acquisition that does not meet Justice Department standards," he said.

The deal to buy the stake in the free Metro dailies for $16.5 million was announced Tuesday.

Metro Boston, which debuted in 2001, has attracted a young, active, well-educated audience of 300,000 daily readers with limited overlap among the approximately 1.3 million people that read The Boston Globe each weekday, the companies said.

"The Metro is a single free newspaper in the Boston media market, which has 18 paid daily newspapers. In addition, there are a considerable number of free weekly newspapers, including the many owned by Herald Media Co.," said Globe Publisher Richard Gilman. "This may well be the most competitive newspaper market in the country."

Four years ago, Purcell purchased more than 100 community papers, most of them weeklies, from Fidelity Investments.

"We've been competing with the Boston Herald and other media in Boston. And that's not going to change as a consequence of this deal," said Steve R. Nylund, the president of Metro USA.

Nylund downplayed the idea the Metro has taken a significant number of readers from the Herald.

"I don't think there's any hard evidence that we have stolen readers," he said. He added that Metro primarily attracts nonreaders or adds people who continue to read another paper.

Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. of the New York Times Co., which also owns The Worcester Telegram & Gazette, said Tuesday through company spokeswoman Catherine Mathis, "not all free papers are created equal, and we think that Metro Boston will be a wonderful partner."