The Globe story of the moment is the (possibly) impending sale of the paper--but mounting resistance to a new, high-cost health plan among the members of the paper's biggest union is a noteworthy subplot.

Earlier this afternoon, a letter went out from more than 100 employees to publisher Steve Ainsley. They're asking management to restore a "significant portion" of $1.

The fancy insert in today's paper has the official numbers: effective June 1, you'll pay $12.25 for seven days of Globe home delivery and $8 for Thursday-Sunday. No change for Sunday only.

I've been a seven-day subscriber. Not sure I'll keep up at that price.

Also, the note in the insert from publisher Steve Ainsley says the Globe "broke [the] news" of the financial pressures facing The Globe in early April.

In an email sent this morning--the day before the Times Co.'s May 1 concede-or-close deadline--Globe publisher Steve Ainsley talked up recent sacrifices by Globe management; expressed empathy for the paper's union members and the sacrifices they're being asked to make; and spoke with what seems like guarded optimism about the course of management-labor negotiations.

The Globe publisher's plan for the paper (and Boston.com) was described in an email sent to staffers earlier today.

Much of what's discussed is familiar (e.g., the union negotiations and the Yahoo partnership). However, this is the first I've heard of the Globe seeking new digital revenue sources that don't compromise advertising.

This step was announced in two emails today, one from Times Co. vice chairman Michael Golden and one from Globe publisher Steve Ainsley. Here they are; note the possible implications of the move for Boston's nonprofit community:

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Dear Colleagues,
It is with sadness that I write to tell you that The New York Times Company Foundation is suspending grant making and the matching gifts program.

--The Herald reports that the Globe is raising the price of its print edition, to $1.50 on weekdays/Saturdays (outside of eastern MA) and to $3.50 ($4 outside of Eastern MA) on Sundays. The people who made this decision have financial skills I can't claim. But how will this not exacerbate the migration of (formerly) paying print readers to the web?

A tipster tells DQM that the Globe has formed a "New Revenue Team"--aimed, as the name suggests--at finding new ways for the paper to make money.

The NRT has 13 members, including managing editor Caleb Solomon and Boston.com bigwig Bob Kempf. Apparently, though, publisher Steve Ainsley wants as many people as possible involved in the new-revenue push: his memo speaks of an "incentive plan that pays out an increasing amount as an idea moves through the successive phases of development."

There's no bad news in the note that Boston Globe publisher Steve Ainsley sent to the paper's employees yesterday. But there's not really any good news, either.

Here's the Cliffs Notes version: we're going to figure out how to make the Globe work as a business proposition, because there's really no other choice.

Or, as Ainsley put it:

If you thought that the recent decision by Boston Globe drivers to accept a wage cut and fewer holidays meant that Globe management was successfully making the case for austerity to the paper's employees, think again.

Yesterday--in advance of a December 9 meeting on the possible re-opening of the contract of the Boston Newspaper Guild, the paper's largest union--BNG head Dan Totten sent a memo to Globe management that excoriated management's approach to employee relations.

Forty-two positions total, in the circulation/marketing and advertising departments, including senior managers.

That's just one of the developments reported in an internal memo from Globe publisher Steve Ainsley today. Also of note: Boston.com now reports to the Globe rather than to New York Times Digital. This is less dramatic than it sounds, however, since certain parts of Boston.