New Show, Old Cast

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.

For all the changes, including a switch to Herald Tribune body type, readers should have no trouble recognizing the old Journal-American and old World-Telegram in the new World Journal. Except for Murray Kempton and one or two others, most of the two papers' apparently inexhaustible supply of columnists will somehow find elbow room. In editorial command will be the kind of balanced ticket (Irish, Jewish, Italian) that is the delight of city politicians: Editor Frank Conniff, now Hearst national editor; Managing Editor Paul Schoenstein, now Journal-American managing editor; and Assistant Managing Editor Louis Boccardi, now World-Telegram assistant managing editor.

Drawbacks of Seniority. Reporters' bylines will offer few surprises. Guild seniority rules will force the World Journal to hang on to far too many tired oldtimers while cutting loose a batch of promising youngsters. The familiar old crowd will supply what Conniff calls "recognition value"--enough, it is hoped, to attract an initial circulation that approaches 800,000.

Nor will readers have any trouble recognizing the new Herald Tribune; it is scarcely changing. Even on Sundays, when it will combine with the Journal and be edited by a Telegram man, it will still be written largely by the present Trib crew. Last week Trib men were angered by published reports that the new corporation will give the paper a time limit to turn into a moneymaker. Denying any such stipulation in the merger, the editors complained that such rumors scare off advertisers who have been growing more friendly of late. Last year Trib advertising revenue showed an encouraging 7.3% gain.

Very soon, particularly if a strike delays the scheduled publication date, a campaign to publicize the new merged newspapers should get under way. Conniff and his colleagues hope it will be reasonably restrained. "All of us old-timers remember," he says, "how much they promised with PM and how disappointed we were right from the start."

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