Boston Globe nears union deal

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The Boston Globe and its largest union have drawn up an agreement to save the newspaper $10m (£6.2m) in cutbacks.

The Boston Newspaper Guild leadership agreed to accept a salary cut of almost 6% across its workers, as well as reductions in employee pensions.

The Globe's owner, the New York Times, had imposed a 23% pay cut after the union originally rejected the proposal.

The Boston Newspaper Guild's membership will now vote on 20 July on whether to accept the deal.

The Globe, one of the oldest big-city US newspapers, lost $50m last year and is expected to lose $85m this year.

The Boston Newspaper Guild will vote on the deal on 20 July.

"Our aim throughout our negotiations has been to achieve the necessary savings in a way that causes the least hardship for our employees," said Steve Ainsley, the Globe's publisher.

The Boston Globe is the latest title to find itself squeezed by falling sales, rising costs and declining advertising revenues.

Traditional papers also face stiff competition from websites offering news content for free and other sites luring away classified advertisers.

At least 12,500 jobs have gone in US print journalism in the past two years.