Could Boston become a one-newspaper town?

Could Boston become a one-newspaper town? Well, yes. Boston could even become a no-newspaper town at the rate newspaper closings are going (check out this CNN.com story). We all know by now that the Boston Globe's future is precarious. The union leaders have blown past their second deadline without coming to terms with the Boston Globe's owners -- or, at least, the four unions haven't all successfully met the terms dictated by The New York Times Co. for keeping the Globe in business.

Meanwhile, the Boston Herald has turned into a cross between a celebrity magazine and a sports magazine -- and its editorial content, even in those areas, seem to be diminishing every day.

So the question, for this Massachusetts-based book publicist, isn't so much whether Boston could become a one-newspaper town. It's whether Boston could become a no-newspaper town. And the corollary, of course, is this: If Boston becomes a no-newspaper town, what will that mean for book promotion campaigns? Clearly, book reviews in newspapers are becoming distant memories. Yet, strangely, most authors and publishers who contact me still open their conversations with, "My goal is to have my book reviewed in the New York Times or another newspaper of that caliber. Can you make it happen?"

In a word, no. I can't make it happen, and I'm already recommending that authors and publishers take a look at their own newspapers and make note of how few books are actually reviewed therein, and the origin of those books. If your book is already in print, and if your publishing house isn't among the major ones, and you're not paying for newspaper space . . . then its probably not going to see the inside of a newspaper. Instead, you should be focusing on other book promotion opportunities -- and they're out there. You have to be more creative than ever, but that's what book promotion has always been about -- creativity -- and that's a good thing, after all.

I wish the Boston Globe employees and readers luck and success as we see what happens next. Maybe there's still the possibility of a future for Boston's number one newspaper -- for a little while, anyway.

Don't read today's "Boston Herald."

If you love reading -- and I doubt you'd be reading a blog about book promoting if you didn't -- then I'd advise you to steer clear of today's edition of the Boston Herald. It's the bearer of two bad-news items.

First, the Herald reveals the chilling news that Cambridge, Massachusetts' Out-of-Town News is in deep financial trouble and may be forced to close.

If you've ever been to Harvard Square, then you know the Out of Town News stand. It's the first thing you notice when you emerge from the subway's Red Line and the place where you probably indulged your curiosity about every imaginable newspaper and magazine, from all around the world, as you waited for a friend or just relaxed before your next engagement. A Harvard Square devoid of the Out of Town News stand would be like ... well, like a Downtown Crossing lacking a Jordan Marsh and a Filene's. Which, granted, has already happened so, presumably, the Out of Town News stand could succumb to the competition from the Internet. But -- what a terrible loss that would be for all of us.

And another reason to avoid opening the Boston Herald this morning is that their reporter, Christine McConville, asks the question, "Will Someone Step Up to Buy the Boston Globe?" I'm not sure we have to worry about Boston's becoming a one-newspaper city just yet (and it isn't as though the Herald, which is Boston's number two newspaper, doesn't have its axe to grind), but still, it's disheartening to see anyone raise the possibility that the New England Media Group, which is owned by the parent company of the New York Times, is in dire straits.

The economic news of the past few months has been horrible for all of us. But doesn't it sometimes seem as though those of us who love books and newspapers and magazines are dealing with a dual problem -- that we're staring at the dominance of the Internet at the same time as we're watching the slowing down of the economy?

Anyway, don't open up today's Boston Herald -- and don't log onto their Web site, either. You heard it from this book publicist first.