The Boston Globe - 06.08.2019

C2 Business The Boston Globe TUESDAY, AUGUST 6, 2019

230 of the Communications De-
cency Act, whichsays the opera-
tors of Internet forums aren’t re-
sponsible for the messages users
post. Death threats are illegal,
even under the First Amendment
— and an Internet user who
posts such threats is responsible
for his words — but the Internet
site that publishes them is not.
Other countries are far more
aggressive about regulating on-
line speech. In Germany, for in-
stance,social media networks
can be hammered with millions
of euros in fines for failing to take
down offensive user postings
within 24 hours. France is mov-
ing to enact a similarlaw.
But in the United States, on-
line hygiene is mainly enforced
by economics. Giants like Face-
book and Twitter have grown
more aggressive — some say too
aggressive — in tamping down
hateful and insulting speech, be-
cause the stuff scares away many
would-be subscribers, and be-
cause major advertisers don’t
want theironline messages ap-
pearing alongside sexist insults
and racist rants. So cleaning
things up is just good business.
As a result, the big networks
are purging themselves of the
worst actors, who instead are
gathering in the Internet’s seedi-
er precincts. Katherine Mangu-
Ward, editor in chief at the liber-
tarian magazine Reason, warns
there’s a danger in this.
“If you drive radical speech in-
to darker corners of the Internet,
it can flourish there,” Mangu-

uTECHLAB
Continued fromPageC

Ward said. “Better that it should

be out in the sunlight.”

Maybe. But untilthis week-

end, how many people had even

heard of 8chan? Consigning such

hateful garbage to a virtuallyun-

known websitemight be the best

way to prevent the infection from

spreading.

As for keepingtrack of the

fiends who gather in such places,

here’s where the government has

a legitimate role to play. Not

through censorship,but through

surveillance. Federal law enforce-

ment agencies have gotten very

good at infiltrating and monitor-

ing Internet forums popular with

Islamic extremist groups. Since

9/11, they’ve disrupted hundreds

of plots this way. Now it’s time to

apply the same skill and dili-

gence to home-grownindividuals

and groups that have demon-

strated a willingness to use vio-

lence. Between the white-su-

premacist right and the black-

clad bully boys of Antifa,

American cops have a target-rich

environment. After the hell of

last weekend, alt-right sites

should be at the top of the target

list.

So when8chan makes its in-

evitable return, let’s hope it gets

lots of new visitors. The kind

who carry badges.

Hiawatha Bray can be reached at

[email protected].

Follow him on Twitter

@GlobeTechLab.

Is heading off online hate possible?

By Rebecca Robbins

STAT

SAN FRANCISCO — Alzheimer’s

patientswhoreceivedan experi-

mental protein cocktail derived

fromyoung blood plasma

maintained their perfor-

manceon measures of cog-

nition andfunctionafter six

months, the biotech company be-

hindthe therapy, Alkahest, said on

Monday.

Alkahest’s announcement cru-

cially did not include the releaseof

any data — that’s planned for an Al-

zheimer’s research conference in

December— but if the full results

hold muster they couldprovidea

boost for a controversial field of sci-

ence that has captured the popular

imagination.

The Silicon Valley company test-

ed its plasma protein cocktail,

known as GRF-6019, in a Phase 2

study that initiallyenrolled47 pa-

tientswithmildto moderate Al-

zheimer’s disease. Thirty-ninepa-

tients were evaluated. Patients were

randomly assigned to get either a

high dose or a low dose infused into

theirveinsfor five consecutive days

at the start of the study, and then

for another five straight days 12

weeks later.

Alkahest reported on Monday

that GRF- 6019 seemedsafe, the

study’s primary goal. The company

also said that the groupof patients

saw no decline on two tests assess-

ing their cognitive abilitiesover the

six-monthstudy period,and that

the patientssaw “negligible”decline

over that periodon two tests assess-

ing their ability to complete daily

activities suchas feeding them-

selvesor buttoningtheirshirts.

“This is a very encouragingre-

sult, and we are already consider-

ing next steps very carefully,” Karo-

ly Nikolich, Alkahest’s CEO and co-

founder, toldSTAT aheadof

Monday’sannouncement.

Alkahest will have to addressbig

questions and conduct moreand

larger trialsbefore GRF-6019 can be

consideredto have seriouspotential

for Alzheimer’s, a field witha long

history of failed treatments that’s

been led astray by glimpsesof prom-

ise before. Most significantly, Alka-

hest’s study did not include a control

groupfor comparison— a feature

that’s considered essential in gold-

standard research and will certainly

be needed in future studies if Alka-

hest is to moveGRF-6019 forward.

Alkahest will also needto an-

swer questions about the details of

its new study results— and it plans

to do so, at the CTAD conference in

San Diego in December. There,

Alkahest intends to release data on

how the patientsscoredon the ex-

ams measuring cognition and func-

tion. It also plansto break down

any differences between the high-

and low-dose groups.

The company also performed

brain imaging on the patients in the

trial and collected blood samples

fromthemto analyze biomarkers.

Alkahest intends to unveil those de-

tails at CTAD, too, which couldpro-

videindependentscientists with

somehints of what effects GRF-

6019 might be having in the brain.

Alkahest, led by Genentechal-

ums,was spunout of the lab of pio-

neeringStanford neuroscientist Tony

Wyss-Coray five yearsago. It’s a fairly

traditional biotech company work-

ing in a field that is anything but.

This past February, the Food and

DrugAdministration rebuked the

field with a stern warning that plas-

ma infusionsfrom youngpeople

provide “no proven clinical benefit”

against diseases includingAlzheim-

er’s and Parkinson’s. That warning

promptedone company, Ambrosia,

to halt its businessinfusing young

plasmainto customers willing to

pay $8,000 per liter.

Alkahest has another ongoing

trial testing GRF- 6019 in an often-

neglected population: patients with

severe Alzheimer’s disease. That tri-

al, whichis placebo-controlled,is

still enrolling patientsand is ex-

pected to wrap up around the end

of this year.

GRF-6019notably does not take

the tackthat has dominated Al-

zheimer’s drugdevelopment for

years: tryingto block amyloid

plaques. Instead, it tries to support

degenerating neuronsin a variety

of ways — by blocking neuroinflam-

mationand by stimulating the

maintenanceand formation of syn-

apses, for example.

“We are the ultimate not-amy-

loid,” Nikolich said.

Rebecca Robbinscanbe reachedat

[email protected].

Alzheimer’s

patients

benefited in

plasmatrial

then approached Gannett with a
friendlier offer. Reed had driven
New Media/GateHouse on a
shopping spree for the past five
years or so, gobbling up more
than $1 billion worth of publica-
tions. But it wasn’t clear how
much longer Reed could keep
that game going.
Reed will chair the new com-
pany while a newly hired chief
executive, Paul Bascobert, will
oversee day-to-day operations.
New Media will place six direc-
tors on the merged company’s
board, including Reed, compared
with three from Gannett.
If you live in a community
served by a GateHouse paper,
you’ve probablynoticed that
Digital First isn’t the only
publisher with tight budgets.
Just this year alone in
Massachusetts, GateHouse has
already completed two waves of
job cuts, and consolidated 50 of
its community weeklies into 18
more regional papers in June.
More cuts are coming, for
sure. Reed promised investors
that he’ll wring $275 million to
$300 million a year in savings —
sorry, “run-rate cost synergies” —
or about 7.5 percent of the
combined budgets. Ken Doctor, a

uCHESTO
ContinuedfromPageC

media analyst who writes for

Harvard’s Nieman Lab, says New

England probably won’t be hit as

hard as other places, such as

Ohio and Florida, where both

companies have a major

presence. And Doctor expects

newsroom cuts will probably

represent only a smallportion,

especially considering how much

has already been sliced and diced

from those budgets over time.

Rick Edmonds, a media busi-

ness analyst with the nonprofit

Poynter Institute, likened the

combination to the merger that

brought together Kmart and

Sears in 2005.This deal doesn’t

buy an exemption from the in-

dustry’s persistent problems. But

the savings could provide an im-

portant cushion of time for the

merger partners, he says, per-

haps to work out new solutions.

Previous layoffs at GateHouse

and Digital First, which acquired

the Boston Herald last year, has

helped prompt debate at the

State House about whether the

Legislature should get involved.

One bill would establish a 17-

member commission with a

sweeping charge to look at

various aspects of local

journalism in the state, especially

in underserved communities. Bill

sponsor Lori Ehrlich, a

representative from Marblehead,

says she greets this Gannett-

GateHouse megamerger with

skepticism. But she also hopes

that the added scale mightcurb

the trend of disappearing local

news coverage.

Reed promised as muchon a

conference call with analysts

today, calling the merger a

unique opportunity to “support

quality journalism.”

GateHouse readers have

heard this story before. You can’t

blame themif they share some of

Ehrlich’s skepticism. The name

may change, but the problems

facing the industry aren’t going

away.

Jon Chesto canbe reached at

[email protected]

himon Twitter @jonchesto.

Merger

expectedto

have ripple

effect here

STEVEN SENNE/ASSOCIATEDPRESS

The Taunton

DailyGazette is

one of 15 New

Englanddaily

newspapers

ownedby

GateHouse

Media. One

mediaanalyst

said he expects

any newsroom

paringsfrom

the mergerwill

probably

representonly

a smallportion

of overall

budget cuts.

By RachelSiegel
WASHINGTONPOST
The merger announcedMon-
day between Gannett and Gate-
House Media — America’s two
largest newspaperchains —
comes amid turmoil for the print
journalism industry and shaky
timesfor Gannett, whichfought
off a takeover attempt by a hedge
fund earlier this year.
The deal also marked a new,
uncertainchapterfor the
McLean, Va.-based Gannett, a
former titanof American media
that boomedin the latter half of
the 20th century. Its flagship
publication, USA Today, intro-
duced the country to a national
newspaper that could reachmil-
lionsof readers, complete with
digestible coverage, color photos,
and eye-popping graphics.
WithMonday’s announce-
ment, media analysts reflected
on Gannett’s rise and ‘‘howit
came to be a takeovertarget as
opposed to buying most every
newspaper that came out of the
market,’’ said Rick Edmonds, a

media businessanalyst at the

Poynter Institute,a nonprofit

journalism training center.

Like printmediaeverywhere,

Gannett saw steep declines in

print advertisingwith the rise of

Craigslist and other online adver-

tisingplatforms.Readerscut

backon printsubscriptionsin

search of digital and free news.

Overtime,thosefactors built

pressure on mediacompanies to

cut costs and consolidate.

‘‘There are ways you can con-

solidate,’’ said HaroldVogel, a

veteran media analyst. ‘‘You don’t

need two CFOs;you don’t need

two chairmenor headsof mar-

keting.’’

Gannett’s financial struggles

and waves of recent layoffs follow

a long run at the helmof Ameri-

can journalism.Today, Gannett’s

vast portfolioincludes USA To-

day, 109 local media organiza-

tions in 34 states, and dozensof

other news brands online in the

United Kingdom. Each month,

morethan 125 millionunique

visitors access content from USA

Today and Gannett’s localsites,

accordingto the company. Still,

in January, Gannett slashed jobs

at the Indianapolis Star, the Ari-

zonaRepublic,the Tennessean,

the CitizenTimesin Asheville,

N.C., and other papers, Poynter

reported.

Gannett’s history reaches back

to 1906, when Frank Gannett and

othersboughta half interest in

the Elmira Gazette in upstate

New York. From there, Gannett

acquiredand oversaw otherlocal

newspapers throughoutthe

Northeast and, in time, the rest of

the country. The Gannett Nation-

al Service was foundedin 1943,

providing local papers with na-

tional reporting and dispatches

frombureausin Washington and

elsewhere.The company went

public in 1967.

Gannett was also knownfor

bringing innovations to its news-

rooms.In 1929, Frank Gannett

invested in the development of

the teletypesetter. Newsrooms

were later stocked withshort-

wave radio sets to speedup re-

porting of far-off events, accord-

ing to a company history. Print-

ing presses were adapted for

color at the Gannett Rochester

newspapersas earlyas 1938.A

corporate airplane even helped

gather news from disparate plac-

es.

Much of Gannett’s greatest

success camethroughthe vision

of Allen Neuharth, who rose from

delivering a daily newspaperto

becoming Gannett’s chairman in

1979.

Under Neuharth’s leadership,

the company enjoyed a steady

growthperiodand eventually

created USA Today, which initial-

ly drew skepticismfor its cost

and viability.

Critics doubtedthe concept

and dubbed the model the ‘‘Mc-

Paper,’’ even as the informative

charts and exhaustive national

coverage caughton withreaders

nationwide.(Neuharth diedin

2013 at age 89.)

Gannett shares closedhigher

on the New York StockExchange

at $11.04, up 29 cents.

Accord marks shift for troubled American newspaper giant

Likeprint

media all

over,

Gannett

saw steep

declinesin

printads

withthe

rise of

Craigslist

and other

online ad

platforms.

MARKLAMBIE/ELPASO TIMES VIA ASSOCIATED PRESS

Walmart

customerswere

escorted from

the store after

a gunman

openedfire on

Saturday in El

Paso, Texas.

STAT

PAPERCHASE

Here are the 15 dailies that

GateHouse owns in New

England.

Connecticut

The BulletinNorwich

Massachusetts

The EnterpriseBrockton

The Herald NewsFall River

The MetroWest Daily News

Framingham

CapeCodTimesHyannis

Milford DailyNewsMilford

The Standard-Times

New Bedford

The PatriotLedgerQuincy

Ta unton Daily GazetteTaunton

Te legram& GazetteWorcester

New Hampshire

Foster’sDailyDemocratDover

Portsmouth HeraldPortsmouth

Rhode Island

The Providence Journal

Providence

The Newport DailyNews

Newport

The IndependentWakefield

SOURCE: GateHouse Media