By David Scott
Boston Sports Media Watch

Last month’s announcement of planned layoffs by Boston Globe Daddy, the New York Times Company, is beginning to affect the Globe sports department, Scott’s Shots has confirmed.

Long-time Globe sportswriter, Marvin Pave, has agreed to take the company buyout according to three separate individuals with intimate knowledge of the situation. It is also believed that at least two other “desk” people have agreed to leave as well, but Shots could not confirm those two names. It’s expected that Pave’s last day will come in mid-November.

The Globe is scheduled to lose 35 jobs from the paper’s “newsroom” with more than 100 additional cuts coming from throughout the New England Media group, made up of the Globe, Boston.com and the Worcester Telegram & Gazette. Last Thursday, Jay Fitzgerald of the Herald reported that sources had confirmed the Globe is eliminating its national news department as well as the elimination of the Sunday education section and the Thursday, stand-alone, “Life at Home” section.

Pave, contacted by Shots via email on Saturday, preferred not to comment and likely was abiding by parameters set forth by the conditions of the buyout.

The Associated Press reported earlier this month the buyout option, as set forth by publisher Richard Gilman, would include “three weeks of severance pay for each year worked, and an extension of health benefits for up to a year, (according to) Globe spokesman Al Larkin. The offer caps severance pay at 104 weeks,” AP reported and “Employees have until Nov. 21 to decide on whether to accept the offer.” If buyouts fail to achieve the desired staff trimming, the Globe will be forced to trim in other manners, i.e., layoffs.

With more than 30 years of Globe service, Pave would be very near the upper limits of the buyout.

Most of Pave’s recent Globe sports bylines have been appearing in the twice-weekly regional sections distributed to the North and NorthWest regions of the paper’s readership. He also recently filled in on Bruins coverage.

According to a bio compiled for the ECAC-SIDA May, 2002 newsletter when Pave was honored with that college Sports Information Director group’s media award, Pave “has covered both the collegiate and professional sports scene around Boston for over 30 years, having joined the staff of the Boston Globe as a part-timer at age 17 while serving in a full-time capacity since January 1969. . . A graduate of Boston University’s School of Public Communication, Pave has handled assignments that range from the NCAA hockey and basketball championships to the Ryder and Davis Cups. He has done extensive coverage of the Boston Marathon as well as day-to-day coverage of the Boston Red Sox, Boston Bruins and New England Patriots. Pave (had) penned a weekly college soccer column (the only one of its kind in metropolitan Boston) for over 20 years and has also been a regular contributor and beat writer on HOCKEY EAST, ECAC, America East, Ivy League and small college events.”

The bio continued, “Pave served early on in his Globe career as the newspaper’s high school sports editor. (He) was on the ground floor of what has become a major sporting event in Massachusetts, as he planned, organized and essentially shaped what has become the high school “Super Bowl” football championships in December. Pave was honored as the Massachusetts Education Writer of the Year by the Massachusetts School Public Relations Association and is a past recipient of both the Boston University Scarlet Quill/(Murray Kramer) Award (1990) and Suffolk University’s Award for Contributions to the Field of Journalism.”

Pave, incidentally, shared the ECAC-SIDA honor that year with the Herald’s longtime college guy, John “Jocko” Connolly.

David Scott writes from a seaside shanty on the shores of Hull, Mass. and can be reached at shots@bostonsportsmediadotcom