The Daily News secret newsroom in Jersey City appears to be getting rapidly dismantled.
Robert Shields is the latest to exit. He resigned on Tuesday to become the editor of the freebie newspaper amNewYork, which is owned by Newsday parent Cablevision.
At amNewYork, Shields replaces Peter Catapano, who quit in November to become the executive editor of Salon Media.
Shields was the deputy digital editor who was dispatched to the Jersey City printing plant in April to head up a 30-person newsroom cranking out stories for its short-lived Daily News America Web operation.
That move had stirred suspicion and resentment among newsroom staffers, who feared a plot to turn the 97-year-old paper into a digital-only operation.
Earlier this month, the digital staff was whipsawed by a major downsizing that axed about 20 of the 30 staffers. In September, 30 staffers were axed from the paper’s downtown Manhattan headquarters. It offered a round of buyouts to the photo staff last month.
Rumors have swirled for years that CEO William Holiber planned to convert the paper to a largely digital edition and jettison the print version of Mort Zuckerman’s teetering tabloid.
I am overwhelmed by all the well wishes today from @NYDailyNews and @amNewYork staffers. And those I've crossed paths with over the years.
— Robert Shields (@rshields37) January 26, 2016
The paper had always denied that it had any such plans — until the recent hard-ball negotiations with the drivers union revealed the threat to be real. Holiber warned drivers during the negotiations that unless they accepted a new contract that froze their pensions in 2018 and offered about 34 buyouts and route reductions, the paper would immediately begin to convert to all-digital.
The paper is said to be losing close to $30 million a year.
“It’s like a ghost town in there,” said one recently departed staffer of the Manhattan newsroom.
