Newspapers: New Show, Old Cast

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Target date for the first issue of New York's new afternoon newspaper, the World Journal, is April 25. The only way the date can be met, said Matt Meyer, president of the new publishing company, World Journal Tribune, Inc., is for the newspaper unions to cooperate. "In our judgment," wrote Meyer in a letter to World-Telegram employees, "the merger is the only way we can create a publishing force which will endure in New York and, at the same time, make employment available to the largest number of people who presently work for our papers." Similar letters were sent to Journal-American and Herald Tribune staffers.

The papers' employees are far from convinced. Although Justice Department approval of the merger seems assured, the unions are threatening to strike. According to the publishers' calculations, the merger will throw some 2,000 people out of work: 901 Newspaper Guilds-men, 450 printers, 421 drivers, 77 mailers, 53 photoengravers and 41 stereo-typists. The Guild's Tom Murphy and the printers' Bert Powers have made their disapproval loud and clear. For public consumption at least, Guildsman Murphy demanded as the price of merger that the publishers keep their entire present staffs on salary for at least one year—a proposal that the publishers were quick to squelch. One of the major reasons for merging is to trim costs by cutting payrolls.

When he is being more realistic, Murphy admits to understanding that many Guildsmen are going to have to go. Powers, too, has warned his union that many of them will be out of work as a result of the merger. Eventually, negotiations will boil down to how much severance pay the dismissed employees will receive. Murphy insists that the ceiling of 60 weeks' pay for 30 years' employment must be raised. Whatever the final compromise, the publishers will have to pay a handsome price for dropping any sizable number of staffers. Last week the New York Publishers Association voted to accept the new corporation as a member, but whether or not a strike against the World Journal Tribune would shut down the association's other members, however, remains uncertain.

No Road Show. While the negotiations go on, plans for the World Journal remain just that—little more than a few pasted-up pages. Because the unions forbid anyone to work for the new corporation until a contract has been signed, the paper's editors have not even been able to run off one dummy issue. "It's going to be like opening a show on Broadway without an out-of-town try-out," says Editor Frank Conniff. "The cast will be getting together for the first time just twelve hours before opening-night curtain."

Conniff is confident, however, that once his paper gets into print, it will provide a bright commentary on New York. "This is a lively town," he says, "and we're going to reflect it." For foreign coverage, the World Journal will rely on the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service. Like both its predecessors, the paper will depend on newsstand sales—which means large eye-catching headlines. But with the Journal and Telegram no longer vying with each other in sensationalism, Conniff hopes to make his combined paper more reflective and responsible.