Posted: 3:55 am
September 17, 2008
THE Newhouse family said that it doesn't expect to get the amount of cost-saving concessions it needs to save the Star-Ledger, the largest daily in New Jersey, and said it will issue notices to all employees later this week saying that the paper will be sold or - failing that - closed on Jan. 5.
Back on July 31, the company said it needed to get 200 people to accept voluntary severance packages at the Star-Ledger and another 25 buyouts at the Trenton Times, plus concessions from the pressmen, mailers and drivers.
While it has reached a tentative pact with mailers and pressmen, the company said negotiations with the drivers have stalled.
"Since it is doubtful that the drivers will ratify an agreement by Oct. 8, 2008, we will be sending formal notices to all employees this week. . . advising [them] that the company will be sold or failing that, that it will close operation on Jan. 5, 2009," said Star-Ledger Publisher George Arwady.
Despite the bleak assessment, Doug Panattieri, president of the Newspaper and Mailers Delivery Union, which represents the drivers, said talks are continuing. "I see no reason why the partners cannot reach a tentative deal. The NMDU is ready and willing to continue negotiation in good faith."
The Newhouse family, which owns dozens of newspapers as well as Condé Nast Publications and Parade, had set an Oct. 1 deadline to extract concessions.
Volunteers from the non-unionized newsroom have been lagging although frequently employees don't make a final decision until closer to deadline.
"Although we are making progress toward two of our three conditions (the Mailers have a ratification vote scheduled for Sept. 22) we still are far from an agreement with the drivers union," said Arwady.
JPMorgan Chase has been retained to handle a potential sale. An attorney for Teamsters Local 1100 did not return a call seeking comment. The Mailers union declined to comment.
The newsroom has always been non-union and the billionaire family that controls the paper had given lifetime no-layoff guarantees to its reporters and editors so long as the newsroom stayed non-union.
Arwady on July 31 had told stunned employees that the paper was "on life support" and past efforts to cut costs had failed to reverse the losses.
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