Blizzard forces Boston Globe plant to call off printing

Neighbors team up to clear a driveway, Monday, Feb. 23, 2026, in North Attleborough, Mass. Over two feet of snow fell on the area after a blizzard passed through. —AP

BOSTON, Massachusetts — A record-setting snowstorm has prompted managers of The Boston Globe to call off printing their 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.

But 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 percent of US adults often got their news from printed newspapers or magazines, compared with 56 percent who said they would often get their news from a smartphone, computer or tablet.

Snowfall records

Tuesday marks the first time the Globe management called off the newspaper’s 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.

But few copies made it to readers, as 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.