N.Y. Daily News Will Try to Pick Buyer by Friday

A buyer for the Daily News may be chosen Friday from among three suitors for the bankrupt New York tabloid, three days before an Aug. 17 deadline set by a federal bankruptcy judge, a union leader said late Monday.

“We’re going to make every effort to pick a buyer,” George MacDonald, president of the Allied Printing Trades Council, said in a telephone interview.

MacDonald was speaking after a meeting between union, creditor and owner representatives with a court-appointed trustee charged with hammering out the sale of the newspaper.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina Brozman has given the newspaper until Aug. 17 to file a reorganization plan. If a deal is not reached by then, the News could lose its sole right to file such a plan.

MacDonald said he would urge officials of the newspaper’s unions to hold round-the-clock discussions before reconvening Friday for a final selection.

The three prospective buyers are Canadian publisher Conrad Black, who also controls the London Daily Telegraph and is considered by many to be the leading contender to take over the newspaper; real estate developer Mortimer Zuckerman, and Silver Screen Management, a film investment partnership that has offered a 40% ownership share to News managers and employees.

The Daily News filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors last December when its owner, Robert Maxwell, died mysteriously.