A Rake’s Progress

Now that the Boston Globe has endorsed Barack Obama, the first question is: does it matter to anyone outside the campaigns?

The answer is: hardly.

The Globe’s presence in New Hampshire is minimal and has been steadily shrinking over the past decade. In fact, a few years ago the Globe stopped publishing its “New Hampshire Weekly” edition, citing paltry circulation numbers and declining advertising revenues. At the time, they were reaching approximately 23,000 New Hampshire adults, almost all in the southern tier of the state (i.e. south of Manchester and Portsmouth).

In case you are wondering, in a state with just over 1 million adults that represents about 2.3% of the population. Figure that at least half of those people are Republicans, and you can see the Globe’s Obama-love means little to those who will be voting in the primary.

Sorry, Barack. Better hope the Union Leader likes you.