On Mort Zuckerman:
Daily News staffers are bracing for another round of cuts this week as owner Mort Zuckerman tries to stanch the flow of red ink at the moribund tabloid.
Zuckerman is expected to take another stab at unloading the paper if he can cut losses — estimated at $30 million a year — by jettisoning more high-priced executives and settling some looming union issues, industry insiders said.On Friday, the 78-year-old mogul and William Holiber, the Daily News CEO, confirmed to staffers that Colin Myler, the editor-in-chief of the circulation-hemorrhaging paper for the past four years, would be replaced by Executive Editor Jim Rich.
The latest jolt comes only a month after Zuckerman was forced to call off a sale of the paper following a six-month auction that failed to turn up any bids.
Beyond layoffs, staffers are also worried that this week’s announcement — rumored to be coming on Thursday — will signal a print pullback. There’s speculation Zuckerman will borrow a page from the Newhouse family’s Advance Publications and skip publishing a print edition on a slow-selling day of the week.
Zuckerman-owned US News & World Report already employs a similar strategy, dropping its regular print publication and going mostly online. The once-major newsweekly has been reduced to churning out college rankings and other “best of” guidebooks.
While Holiber was a big booster of the move, the jury is still out on whether it can work for newspapers that derive the bulk of revenue from their daily print editions.
Circulation woes have been a major problem for Zuckerman under Myler’s four-plus-year tenure.
In the 12 months ended in March, total circulation has fallen by a staggering 40.7 percent, to 312,736, according to the Alliance for Audited Media.
Daily print circulation is off 40.2 percent under Myler, from 400,131 in March 2012 to a mere 239,183 as of March 31 — likely the steepest circulation dive in the tabloid’s 96-year history.
Digital circulation, which had been growing for a time under Myler’s watch, accomplished the near-impossible — it fell 66 percent in the year ended March 31, to 73,553.
Expressed as a percentage decline while Myler was the top editor, digital circulation dropped 53 percent. Total circulation, meanwhile, fell 43.8 percent.
With business worsening and no takers evident after a first attempt to sell the paper, the need for cuts is even more pressing for Zuckerman.
Cablevision boss Jim Dolan, who already owns Long Island tabloid Newsday, said he was going to lob in a $1 bid but never bothered.
None of the other potential suitors, including real estate developer Steve Witkoff, supermarket mogul John Catsimatidis and The Hill owner Jimmy Finkelstein, ended up submitting bids.
Zuckerman instructed investment bank Lazard to end the auction last month. But observers believe it’s only a matter of time before the paper is back on the block.
Also weighing on the paper’s ability to attract a buyer is the paper’s contracts with the unions for its drivers and pressmen. They expire in less than 18 months.
