It’s deja vu all over again. Since Rupert Murdoch purchased the New York Post in 1976, the Post and its longtime rival, the Daily News, have been in the thrall of a succession of magnate masters who promise to resuscitate the nearly moribund publications. The latest is Steven Hoffenberg, chairman of Towers Financial Corp., who two weeks ago rushed in to save the Post after its owner, bankrupt real-estate developer Peter Kalikow, said he could no longer keep going despite massive employee pay cuts. The paper was said to be hemorrhaging money, losing as much as $250,000 a week. Hoffenberg’s rival is Mortimer Zuckerman, who rescued the News just last month. Zuckerman made his money in Boston real estate; now he’s spending it building a media empire that includes U.S. News & World Report and The Atlantic.
Both Hoffenberg and Zuckerman have declared themselves saviors of the free press, and both have come under attack in the pages of their rivals, as well as in the other two New York dailies, New York Newsday and The New York Times. Last week Hoffenberg’s questionable finances made him the biggest target, obscuring the earlier furor over Zuckerman’s wholesale firing of more than 170 employees, some of whom had spent their careers at the News. Hoffenberg’s company, a debt-collection firm with nearly $700 million in reported assets, is in a dispute with the Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting methods.
Zuckerman was the beneficiary of Hoffenberg’s bad press last week, as three top Post editors and two columnists defected to the News. The columnists included Amy Pagnozzi, whose claim to fame had been her spirited defense of the Long Island Lolita, Amy Fisher. She left because of her editors: “I’d follow those guys to the Podunk Press.” The other big name is Mike McAlary, a soldier of fortune in the tabloid wars who has worked at all of them at least once. McAlary, who writes in a style strikingly reminiscent of the young Jimmy Breslin (now at Newsday), got a special farewell gift from the Post. The paper disclosed his $275,000-a-year salary (a bit above that of the working man he champions) and reprinted a January column in which he called Zuckerman “Public Enemy Number One.” In it, he described his new boss as a man “who doesn’t have a friend in this business who has ever set foot in Brooklyn” (the ultimate New York tabloid insult). McAlary, who used to live in Brooklyn, now resides in Bellport, on Long Island, two hours closer to Zuckerman’s East Hampton estate. After Zuckerman hired him, McAlary conceded his new boss was a forgiving man.
In the face of the defections, Hoffenberg tried to perk up morale at the Post by inviting employees to dinner at Windows on the World, a restaurant atop a World Trade Center tower with a great view of New Jersey. Earlier in the day, he taped a weekend news show that he had hoped would be a debate between him and Zuckerman. However, his rival refused to appear face to face with him and wouldn’t even pose shaking hands. “He’s not a tabloid person,” Hoffenberg crowed. “He’s not a street fighter. He’s not the voice of New York.” Zuckerman said he didn’t want to be seen with Hoffenberg because the differences between them were too vast to be bridged in a photo op. As for the defectors: “They just don’t want to work for this guy. And let me say, I respect their judgment.”
Zuckerman’s holdings should allow him to keep the News alive as he tries to cut costs and find advertisers. If Hoffenberg falls, Zuckerman and New York Newsday, the invader from Long Island, will square off. After eight years, it still isn’t showing a profit for its Times Mirror parent, which has money woes of its own right now. The future of New York’s tabs could be in the hands of an ex-Canadian and a board that meets in Los Angeles.
New columns by real people: Joey Buttafuoco on cars, John Gotti on the law, Carolyn Warmus on relationships. Maybe an African-American besides Thomas Sowell. There’s got to be one in New York.
Run a giant, multi-million-dollar month-long Wingo contest at the end of which one lucky reader will actually win the New York Post.
Turn the Post building into high-priced condominium apartments and print the paper in Mexico.
Report a romance between Marla Maples and Woody Allen, in hopes of making Donald Trump jealous. Try to get a picture of Donald taking Mia Farrow to a Rangers game. If it all works out, try for a double wedding presided over by the Lubavitcher Rebbe and Cardinal O’Connor.
Fire all the pressmen and drivers and replace them with copy boys who will read the paper to subscribers who call a 900 number.
License a high-priced line of Alexander Hamilton caps, sweat shirts and jogging suits. Try to get Spike Lee photographed in one.
Get Ed Koch out of the office more. Try to get him an interview with Saddam Hussein. Offer him a bonus if he can get himself put under fatwah by Iran, then run a reader contest on whether it should be carried out.
More columnists: Al Sharpton on fitness, Amy Fisher on dating, George Steinbrenner on etiquette.
Bring back Son of Sam.
Get the Sultan of Brunei interested in running for city council president. Convince him his only shot is to own his own newspaper.
