The New York Times Co. has found it in its corporate heart to keep the Boston Globe. Why? Because the company's union-busting cutbacks totally worked.

Though just last month the company <a href="">seemed poised to unload it, Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and Chief Executive Janet Robinson announced today they are, in fact, keeping the paper in their clutches. They're keeping a tight lip on their backstage conversations, but according to a very short memo they sent out they knew what they were doing all along:

[The paper] has significantly improved its financial footing by following the strategic plan it set out at the beginning of the year. All along, we explicitly recognized that a careful restructuring of the Globe was one possible route and, thanks to your hard work, that is precisely what has been done.

Considering the sad state of journalism today, one would expect the Globe newsroom would be flush with excitement. Not so. One source said the general feeling resembled that of "ambivalence" because most people wanted a new buyer to bring a "better day." As if such a thing exists!

Send an email to Andrew Belonsky, the author of this post, at andrew.belonsky@gmail.com.