Unionized delivery truck drivers may be nearing the end of their run at the troubled Daily News.
A tipster tells Media Ink that the Newspaper Mailers and Deliverers Union, which has a contract with the troubled tabloid that runs until the end of 2020, is trying to work a deal for drivers that would offer a mid-six-figure buyout to each driver, in exchange for ending the contract early.
The deal being floated would essentially allow Tronc to phase out its 125 drivers over the next 18 months and would seem to hasten a big scale-back in print at the 99-year-old daily in favor of digital, according to our source.
The move would mean a one-time charge against earnings in the tens of millions of dollars, according to one estimate. But Tronc has cash on the balance sheet after selling off the LA Times and San Diego Union-Tribune for $500 million in June.
The last time the drivers’ contract was up for renewal in 2015, the News’ then-publisher, William Holiber, threatened that if the drivers did not accept the last, best and final offer from the struggling daily — still owned at the time by real estate mogul Mort Zuckerman — the company would move immediately to convert to an all-digital format.
Zuckerman sold it to Chicago-based Tronc for $1 and the assumption of pension and other liabilities last September. The paper is still estimated to be losing close to $30 million a year.
The current move by the truckers union is seen as one that anticipates the eventuality that the Daily News will go all-digital.
Meanwhile, Grant Whitmore, the Tronc executive who broke the news on July 23 that half the Daily News newsroom was being laid off, was quietly promoted to publisher this week.
The promotion was noted in the masthead of the Sunday paper but apparently was done so quietly that the Daily News switchboard was unaware of his new title as of Tuesday.
Whitmore, who was said to want no publicity on his new duties, did not return an email seeking comment. Whitmore remains an EVP and general manager of Tronc’s other East Coast papers.
Union officials did not return calls or emails regarding the rumored buyout deal. Tronc had not gotten back by press time.
