Heavy, Heavy . . .

Ted Thackrey, who had taken over as editor & publisher of the New York Post Home News last month, was already deep in trouble with his staff. In 25 years as a newspaper executive, from the Cleveland Press to the Shanghai Post, nervous, excitable Editor Thackrey had not learned to walk softly in the city room. The news he had for his staff a week after his wife, Owner Dorothy Thackrey, had left him in charge, was far from palatable but it was dished out without ceremony. The Post was doing so poorly, he told the Newspaper Guild, that the payroll would have to be slashed by $10,000 a week.

To the guild, that looked like the ax for 100 to 150 people--perhaps a third of the editorial and business staff. One morning last week, during working hours, 250 Postmen crowded into the city room to protest. Publisher Thackrey walked in, told his employees that they were violating the guild contract by meeting there. The Post's Guild Chairman Jay Nelson Tuck, a rewriteman, told the boss that the guild had appointed the entire Post staff to the grievance committee. Under the Post contract, added Tuck, grievance sessions could take place on company time. Snapped Thackrey: "Every one of you get back to your desks by 10:25 or you're all fired."

Deliberately, Post staffers dallied until 10:26. Then they went back to work. Later Thackrey agreed to a two-week truce: nobody would be fired until the guild had examined the Post's books to see whether the cut was justified. People were exaggerating things, added Thackrey; only 78 would have to be fired from news staff and business office.

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