N.Y. Daily News’ Would-Be Owner Says He May Back Out

Mortimer Zuckerman will abandon his bid to buy the Daily News if he is forced to accept lifetime job guarantees for a union he believes is obsolete, lawyers say.

“If this court refuses to reject the contract, the purchaser walks,” said News lawyer Willis Goldsmith.

A judge is scheduled to rule today on the validity of the New York Typographical Union’s contract.

The latest labor dispute comes exactly two years after a crippling strike began at the New York tabloid on Oct. 25, 1990.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina Brozman had been expected to approve Zuckerman’s $36.3-million offer last week. But the News wanted her to throw out the typographers’ contract, which requires whoever owns the News to honor its lifetime job guarantees.

The typographers union offered to give up its lifetime guarantees if Zuckerman reduced the work force gradually, from 167 to 40 over six years, with incentives for early retirement.

Zuckerman wanted to cut the work force to 15 in four years with no buyouts.

Zuckerman owns U.S. News & World Report and the Atlantic Monthly.