Blizzard prompts Boston Globe management to call off printing paper for first time in 153 years

A record-setting snowstorm has prompted managers of The Boston Globe to call off printing their daily newspaper for the first time in its 153-year-old history.

Snow and winds prevented staff from safely getting to the Globe printing plant to print Tuesday’s paper, the newspaper said in an article on its website. Parts of Massachusetts’ Bristol County, where the Globe’s printing press in Taunton is located, recorded 32 inches (81 centimeters) 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 (96.5 centimeters) to break a 1978 record.

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