MID: In the midst of a significant advertising slump; In a city with two strong daily newspapers; In an era when more and more people-especially young people which I understand is your target market-- are getting their news from the Internet and television, why in world would you want to start a daily newspaper?
Pergament: First of all, the so-called advertising slump is irrelevant for a new title. The Globe and Herald are probably doing in the neighborhood of $750 million a year in advertising. The major weeklies, the yellow pages, the smaller weeklies, the smaller dailies-you add that up, there is well in excess of a $1 billion a year in print advertising in Eastern Massachusetts.

The environment becomes a challenge for newspapers that have become accustomed to 8-10% a year revenue gains. Inevitably you become complacent. A little flabby. A sense of entitlement emerges because [the economy] becomes better and richer and its an optimal environment for a newspaper. Suddenly the economy puts on the brakes, and merchants have to get more selective, so the growth stops.

But the fact remains, there is a vast pool of willing advertisers who need to connect with customers. Now, you mentioned the fact about younger people not reading newspapers-that is a very troubling trend. Only about 1 in 5 people between the ages of 21 and 35 reads a daily newspaper every single day. The problems they identify is that the papers are too big, they don't have time for it and they don't want to pay for it.

But in general, our newspaper is going to readers who are not paid newspaper readers. These are young men and women who read it while commuting to work when they're getting on the train. They're used to getting information for free, on the Internet and on TV.

We give them a newspaper for free that is very tightly edited and to the point. We have a lot of international news. We don't have Whitey Bulger and Boston firefighter stuff…

MID: But, people love Whitey Bulger stuff. The Herald's got something about him every goddamned day…
Pergament: Many Herald readers do like that stuff. I'm a Herald reader. But we're tapping into this wonderful new market of urban nomads, and you've got to give them something different-something quick, to the point-something engaging. A lot of international news. High tech news. We are really aggregating a new market.

MID: Aggregating readership can be easy if you're a free paper. The trickier part is getting advertisers to write out checks. What's the response been from advertisers so far, and how do you think you'll get a Filenes, for example, who's been advertising in the Globe for decades?
Pergament: It's not going to take so long to get them. Right now, these major stores must be having declines in their same store sales. They are looking for ideas to reach potential customers. Their questions are going to be: "Is this a good looking newspaper? Is the circulation for real? Are people spending time with it? Are we going to get results?" Ultimately though, to answer those questions, they're going to have to advertise in the paper. And, I believe we'll work with them.

Our sister papers-we have 18 other Metros around the world-are carrying a lot of prestige department store advertising. In fact, if you look at today's paper, we have TJ Maxx on the back cover. We have other commitments starting in the Fall with other major retailers. But Fall-to my way of thinking-is five years from now. We want to get some people in more quickly. I believe we will. They like the market. They want these younger readers-particularly if they can target the right merchandise for them.

MID: What's your financial relationship with the Metro chain? Are you the owner of the Boston "franchise" so to speak?
Pergament: No, no-I work for the company. The official parlance is, I'm the "managing director" of the Boston company. In America, we call that person the Publisher. They're [Metro corporate] very excited about being in Boston and they've given us quite a bit of autonomy-very wide latitude. In terms of content, we're the only one that has movie reviews. We're going to be having theater reviews. We have investigative reporting coming online. We'll be doing a lot of events with the younger market. They are committed to success in Boston.

MID: So, you do not have a financial interest in the paper?
Pergament: Personally-no. But, let me tell you, I've got my self-respect, my ego, my pride, my love of the business-all that stuff is rolled into one highly visible profile here. But, I'm not an investor in the newspaper.

MID: Are you buying Metro stock?
Pergament: I believe I'm on the [stock option] program. You know, here's the funny thing: there is an incentive program with stock options. I haven't even looked at it. That's number six on the list. Number one is to do a really, really good job for Boston.

MID: You sound like a true newspaperman. When did you discover Metro, and when did you start to think this is something you wanted to do? You contacted them or they contacted you?
Pergament: About two years ago, a friend sent me a copy of the London Metro and it was a great looking newspaper-full of action and full of advertising. And, that's how I found out about the concept. Metro started 10 to 12 newspapers in the last year. They started some newspapers, like Toronto, in nine days. They are the most dynamic newspaper company in the world. Associated Press calls them the only growth market in the world. They can move fast when they see an opportunity.

MID: By the way, I was on the T coming down here, the Red Line, and there were seven people in my immediate area reading newspapers. Four people had Metros, two had Globes and one had a Herald.
Pergament: Is that for real?

MID: Absolutely.
Pergament: That's really encouraging. When I drove down today, I saw three people on the Green Line holding it. That wasn't the case even a week ago. Some people think it's a weekly. Or, some people think its some kind of weird, cult newspaper. The market is being educated very quickly, and unlike other Metro markets, we've decided to have a very limited advertising budget. We've got a tiny ad budget we haven't even used yet. We just want the newspaper itself to tell the story.

MID: What are the projections for when this thing is going to break even and go into the black?
Pergament: We don't discuss financial plans of the company. If it were mine, I would go into great detail. Our instinct here is to set a record, despite the so-called recession. Our instinct is to start paying our own way as soon as possible and to do that with an exciting newspaper, massive community involvement and a totally motivated crew. I don't think it's going to be that hard-I don't.

MID: Well, I guess as the TAB founder, you certainly have the right background for it. Tell me about the TAB a bit-you started the first paper in what year, what town?
Pergament: Well, I worked for the Herald as a sales manager as a kid. I was the retail sales manager in my twenties. I also worked for a lot of other newspaper in ad sales and circulation. But in 1979, with my partners Steven Cummings and Dick Yousouphian, I started the TAB with about fifteen thousand bucks in a garage. [We started] in Brookline and Newton and every six months or a year we'd start another TAB newspaper, or two. And I'll tell you, it was a great experience. We put about seven other newspapers out of business that were somewhat complacent. You know, a lot of newspapers have a sense of entitlement that is really quite arrogant. We did that for about fifteen years. We had a lot of fun. But, we started getting a little bored, a little stale on the thing, and we wanted to try something else for a while. Fidelity Investments bought the newspapers and we hung around briefly in some very nebulous roles.

MID: Fidelity bought the newspapers in what year?
Pergament: 1992.

MID: For a disclosed sum?
Pergament: For an undisclosed sum. We had a non-compete for three years. I couldn't even look at a news box without being handcuffed. But, after three years we acquired the State House News Service-Steve Cummings and I with Craig Sandler. He's the young fellow, who in fact is now the majority owner of the news service.

MID: Talk about the staff here at Metro. How many do you have and where did you find them?
Pergament: I figured the best way to go would be to pick the best managers I could and then let them pick their crew. Because this company is so secretive and subterranean in its approach, we really could not surface in terms of the hiring process until about six weeks ago. So it was at that point I selected an ad manager and a sales director. One of them, Steve Dines, has a superb reputation as the national director for the Globe-he's the ad director. And the other fellow, John Lamp, I actually found him through an online search. I'm so pleased to have both these fellows.

The editor, Dan Caccavvaro, had worked with me before at the TAB, and had since gone on to edit a bunch of other newspapers. And he's perfect for this-the right age, the right instincts and the right attitude. He has a lot of interest in the Arts coverage and no real ideological obsessions.

It's a small company--thirty-five people. We're small enough now that the managers take turns opening the office in the morning.

MID: So what's your vision for Boston Metro down the road? How many pages? How much revenue? How much mind share?
Pergament: Mind share is a tough question. Revenue becomes corporate information that we just don't discuss. In terms of pages, I would say we'll probably be a 32 page paper, 36 pages tops. Because the company's philosophy is, rather than sell more ads, squeeze more money out of fewer ads. They want the paper to be tight and readable. We don't want a fat newspaper. This market has to be educated to one thing-they assume that a fat newspaper is an important newspaper. But in reality, and in terms of experience, a fat newspaper is one that is less likely to be read. It is exhausting. Intimidating. We won't have a fat newspaper.

MID: So what's your exit strategy?
Pergament: My personal exit strategy? Gee, I'm still working on my entry strategy. I want this paper to be exciting, reliable, trusted, friendly, accessible, a little bit surprising and productive for advertisers. That is going to take a year to do. I'm having fun. I kind of feel like I've run away and joined the circus.

MID: Are you sleeping well at night?
Pergament: I'm sleeping very well. I wasn't sleeping well…the scary part for me was getting the first paper out. I mean, a month ago, we didn't even have an office. Three weeks ago we didn't even have electricity in the office. The velocity is really picking up here. Getting a paper out in three weeks-that was scary. Now the paper's getting out. Now we're going to make the paper a little prettier. We're going to enliven this internal landscape somewhat, but it's one step at a time.