GLOBE SCOOPS UP COLLINS. Former Herald television critic Monica Collins, dropped last November amid a wave of cost-cutting, will soon surface at a new location: 135 Morrissey Boulevard. Collins has been brought in to write an every-other-week essay for the Boston Globe Magazine, and to contribute to the paper's City Weekly section as well.

"It's the proverbial I-couldn't-be-happier-and-I'm-looking-forward-to-the-opportunity," says Collins, who, until recently, had continued to write a weekly column for the Herald, "Downtown Journal," on a freelance basis. Her first Globe Magazine essay will appear on September 19.

Says Globe Magazine editor Doug Most: "We're excited about it, because I do think she has a voice in this town. She's knowledgeable about the people and places that make this city tick."

Collins also appears Fridays at 9 a.m. on WRKO Radio (AM 680) to talk about media issues on The Pat Whitley Show (as do I and the Globe's Mark Jurkowitz), and writes a syndicated column called "Ask Dog Lady."