Newspapers: New York's New Mix

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Belatedly catching up with the news, New York newspaper publishers officially announced last week what had been common knowledge for months: there will be a three-way newspaper merger. The details varied scarcely a bit from the long-familiar rumors.

A new afternoon paper, the World Journal, will replace Hearst's Journal-American and Scripps-Howard's World-Telegram & Sun. Editorial boss will be Frank Conniff, 52, Hearst's national editor, columnist and one-third of the "task force" that has won a Pulitzer Prize for its interviews with world leaders. According to present plans, the World Journal will concentrate on its home town and carry more local news than either of the papers it replaces. It is inheriting far more columnists than it can handle, but after trimming the list it will encourage guest columns from public figures. The editorial policy, says a top executive, will be a "blend of Hearst and Howard," and no one expects the mixture to reflect much internal conflict.

No Lack of Skepticism. A new Sunday paper, the World Journal and Tribune, will be a combination of the Sunday edition of the Herald Tribune and the Sun day Journal. Its editor will be Herbert Kamm, 48, now managing editor of the Telegram and a member of its staff since 1943. While the Hearst-Howard weekday mix strikes most observers as workable enough, there is no lack of skepticism about the Sunday lash-up. Jock Whitney and Bill Hearst may not fit comfortably into the same paper. All the publishers will admit is that they plan to keep the Trib's popular Sunday supplements: Book Week and the New York Magazine. The daily Trib will continue to be edited by Jim Bellows, 43, who quit as managing editor of the Miami News in 1961, joined the Trib and became editor in 1963.

When the new papers appear around April 11, the number of New York dailies will have been reduced to five from a onetime high of 25. Despite the steady attrition, New Yorkers will probably prefer one improved paper to two mediocre ones. But for all their secretive, slow-maturing plans, the new papers must get some unpleasant unfinished business out of the way before they can begin to publish. They are almost certain of U.S. Justice Department approval of their merger, but coming to terms with the unions is another matter. The papers are talking about dropping at least one-third of their 5,700 employees, and the unions will not hear of it.

Jobs in Scant Supply. Tom Murphy's New York Newspaper Guildsmen, who stand to lose the most jobs, will have the hardest time finding new work because editorial jobs are in scant supply around New York. But firings are imminent once a solution is found to knotty problems of jurisdiction and seniority. In anticipation of the merger, Murphy held up negotiations for new contracts, even though the old ones ran out last spring. The craft unions, all of which have contracts with the merging papers, claim that they are under no obligation to the new ones.