New York Daily News Newspaper

Black to Negotiate With N.Y. Daily News: Canadian publisher Conrad Black has been given the go-ahead to begin full-scale negotiations to buy the New York Daily News, the newspaper said. Black was given the green light after a meeting of News management, unions and trade creditors, Salomon Bros. Vice President Tom Hirschfeld said. The investment banking firm is leading the effort to find a buyer for the tabloid.

Most newspapers have built their long-term growth strategies around the Internet. But a Santa Monica company is betting that an old piece of new technology, the CD-ROM, will help papers bridge the gap to the digital age. In recent months, IMedia International Inc. has reached agreement with two of the nation's largest newspapers to distribute within their Sunday editions CDs chock-full of movie previews, music samples, video games, comics, celebrity interviews and advertisements.

Eight out of the 10 unions at the New York Daily News went on strike Thursday night over a labor grievance that had sparked violence during a truck drivers' walkout earlier in the day. The action climaxed a bitter, month-long standoff between the money-losing tabloid and its unions, which have been without a contract for six months as they have resisted the News' demands for work-rule changes and wage cuts worth at least $50 million a year.

Acclaimed writer Pete Hamill, hired just nine months ago to stem a circulation slide and inject some street smarts into the city's largest tabloid, resigned Thursday as editor in chief of the Daily News, the newspaper said. Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman, who had praised Hamill for his "New York savvy" when he named him in November, issued a memo to the staff that said "notwithstanding our interest in having Pete Hamill remain as editor in chief, he has decided to resign."

The union representing editorial employees at the New York Daily News joined eight other unions Friday in striking the financially troubled tabloid, creating an all-out labor war that has been marked by violence and threatens the paper's survival. About 800 members of the Newspaper Guild of New York cast their lot with about 1,800 other striking union members as the Daily News' management began importing substitute newsroom workers from newspapers owned by its parent firm, the Tribune Co.

N.Y. Daily News Deal Unravels: A deal to make Canadian publisher Conrad Black the top contender to buy the New York Daily News has fallen apart in the wake of union opposition, a source close to the negotiations said. While Black is Daily News management's top choice for a buyer, he is unpopular with unions representing drivers and pressmen because he has proposed large cuts in their work force.

The Daily News' future owner could be decided today, either by the unions and creditors or by a bankruptcy court judge. U.S. World & News Report Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman and Canadian press baron Conrad Black have been bidding for the debt-ridden paper since spring. But despite numerous deadlines, an agreement with either has remained elusive. All parties are scheduled to appear in U.S.

N.Y. Post Publisher May Bid on Daily News: Developer and Publisher Peter Kalikow is near a deal with Wall Street investor Leon Black that would pull Kalikow out of bankruptcy and give him financing to bid for New York's Daily News, according to a weekly business newspaper. Black, former head of mergers and acquisitions at Drexel Burnham Lambert Inc., will provide $50 million to Kalikow, Crain's New York Business reported.

A federal bankruptcy judge took a step Monday toward preserving New York City as a four-newspaper town, approving the sale of New York's Daily News to real estate developer and publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina L. Brozman approved Zuckerman's $36.3-million bid for the News, which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since shortly after the death last year of British press baron Robert Maxwell.

Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman on Thursday completed his purchase of the Daily News, the troubled tabloid that was once the country's largest newspaper but was brought to near extinction by financial troubles. Zuckerman, a multimillionaire real-estate developer and magazine publisher, signed the $36.3-million transaction late Thursday and was to formally assume ownership today, said his spokeswoman, Sherrie Rollins.

A federal bankruptcy judge took a step Monday toward preserving New York City as a four-newspaper town, approving the sale of New York's Daily News to real estate developer and publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman. U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina L. Brozman approved Zuckerman's $36.3-million bid for the News, which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since shortly after the death last year of British press baron Robert Maxwell.

Mortimer Zuckerman will abandon his bid to buy the Daily News if he is forced to accept lifetime job guarantees for a union he believes is obsolete, lawyers say. "If this court refuses to reject the contract, the purchaser walks," said News lawyer Willis Goldsmith. A judge is scheduled to rule today on the validity of the New York Typographical Union's contract. The latest labor dispute comes exactly two years after a crippling strike began at the New York tabloid on Oct. 25, 1990. U.S.

U.S. News & World Report owner Mortimer Zuckerman moved a step closer to buying the bankrupt Daily News on Thursday, agreeing in principle to pay $18 million for the tabloid. Zuckerman has also agreed to assume about $8 million in other obligations and to provide a $3-million bridge loan to avert a cash crisis at the newspaper. Bankruptcy Judge Tina Brozman will decide at a hearing next Wednesday whether to give Zuckerman the go-ahead on the deal.

Suitors Lining Up for Daily News: Two parties interested in bidding for the New York tabloid told a bankruptcy judge that they both expect to win the unions' and the creditors' support for their offers by Thursday. Mortimer Zuckerman, publisher of U.S. News and World Report, and a group of New York investors, who would buy the paper with the unions, told federal bankruptcy judge Tina Brozman that they are close to receiving support for their offers.

The Daily News' future owner could be decided today, either by the unions and creditors or by a bankruptcy court judge. U.S. World & News Report Publisher Mortimer Zuckerman and Canadian press baron Conrad Black have been bidding for the debt-ridden paper since spring. But despite numerous deadlines, an agreement with either has remained elusive. All parties are scheduled to appear in U.S.

N.Y. Daily News Gets More Time: Potential buyers, unions and creditors of New York's Daily News have been given until Aug. 17 to strike a deal on selling the newspaper, lawyers involved in the talks said. Howard Seife of Winston & Strawn, who represents creditors, said U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina Brozman extended the exclusivity for seven days. Exclusivity gives the tabloid the sole right to file a reorganization plan for the News to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.