Word: allbritton
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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...owner, the Chicago-based Tribune Co., estimated that losses could more than double in succeeding years. Unwilling to battle that trend, the Tribune Co. put the paper up for sale last Dec. 18. After three fallow months, the company announced that Texas Wheeler-Dealer Joe L. Allbritton was "buyer of last resort." But when Allbritton demanded a wage rollback and a one-third slash in the $190 million payroll, union leaders balked, and the "last resort" disappeared. Everyone braced for the final step in a grim scenario that had been played out in Washington (the Star) and Philadelphia (the Bulletin...
...Allbritton will not have to put up a cent to acquire the News. What is more, he has 30 days to back out, without obligation, if he cannot reach "satisfactory" payroll-cutting agreements with the eleven unions at the News. Further, the Tribune Co. will have to cover potential tens of millions of dollars in pension and severance obligations for all employees who are laid off during the 30-day transfer period, though that will cost less than an outright closure. As part of the deal, Allbritton will get the News's presses, trucks and two printing plants...
...bargaining hurdles are daunting, and there is a significant chance that the deal could fail. Allbritton must achieve concessions from each union individually-eleven negotiations in 30 days. Moreover, for every job the unions agree to sacrifice at the News, they could lose two more. Under existing contracts, the New York Post and the New York Times have the right to concessions matching whatever relief is granted to the News. The management of the Post, which reported losses of $12 million last year, says it will exercise its option; the Times has indicated that if the Post gets concessions...
...Allbritton has been at the center of a debate about editorial integrity since buying the Trenton Times last year from the Washington Post Co. On his first day he fired 24 of the 80 editorial employees. In February, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that the Trenton Times "agreed to publish a news story in exchange for a $400 advertisement" from an auto-parts company. Less than a week later, the Times fired Reporter John Chester for disobeying orders to process a local department store's press release, word for word, as a news story. Allbritton later apologized in an editorial...
...Allbritton is no champion of editorial independence, but he may be the hard bargainer the News needs to survive. Says Jim Bellows, editor of the Star until he and Allbritton parted company over the dwindling editorial budget: "At the Star, he went right to the cliffside a number of times by threatening to close it. The unions finally came to believe he meant what he said." Allbritton has expressed his view of life by recalling that as a young man he passed the Texas bar exam with a score of 75: "One less and I would not have...