Boston Globe postpones printing of paper for first time in 153 years, due to blizzard

A record-setting snowstorm has prompted managers of The Boston Globe to postpone the printing of their daily newspaper for the first time in its history.

“For more than 153 years, the press workers of The Boston Globe have overcome the elements, technical snafus, and global pandemics to print a daily newspaper,” the paper said in an article on its website. “But in an unprecedented decision, executives determined that the conditions during Monday’s blizzard made it impossible to print and deliver a paper Tuesday morning.”

The Globe said print subscribers will get Tuesday’s paper delivered on Wednesday along with Wednesday’s edition.

“We don’t take the decision lightly,” the article quotes Boston Globe Media Vice President of Print Operations Josh Russell as saying. “We’re not confident that even if we got a crew in tonight, that we could get the papers on our trucks safely. We weren’t confident that that last mile would be doable.”

The storm also cut deeply into Monday’s deliveries: Only 25 percent of papers reached subscribers, the Globe said.

Snow and winds prevented staff from safely getting to the Globe printing plant to print Tuesday’s paper, the newspaper said in the article. Parts of Massachusetts’ Bristol County, where the Globe’s printing press in Taunton is located, had recorded 32 inches of snow by Monday night, the National Weather Service said.

Readers are much less reliant on newsprint for their news in today’s internet age. A 2025 survey by the Pew Research Center found that only 7% of U.S. adults often got their news from printed newspapers or magazines. That’s compared to 56% who said they often got their news from a smartphone, computer or tablet.

Tuesday marks the first time Globe management has called off the newspaper’s daily production since its 1872 founding. Labor strikes halted printing a few times in the 1950s and ’60s.

The Globe said it went to press during another record-setting blizzard nearly five decades ago, when it printed a few thousands copies of a Feb. 7, 1978, edition. Few papers actually made it to readers, however, because piles of snow prevented delivery trucks from getting farther than a mile or two from its building.

Monday’s blizzard set snowfall records in nearby Rhode Island, where the T.F. Green International Airport in Warwick received nearly 38 inches, breaking a 1978 record.