Strike's End

After eleven days, the strike of six Manhattan dailies ended last week, and the papers hustled to recoup their ad losses. As a result, the Sunday papers this week were the fattest ever printed any place. The 102-year-old New York Times printed the biggest paper in its history (430 pages, 4 lbs. 14 oz.), including a two-page edition "for the record" for every one of the days missed during the strike, along with four news sections (152 pages) crammed with Christmas ads. The tabloid News printed 532 pages for its six different editions for the New York and New Jersey areas, with a double portion of comics, and 23,000 lines more advertising than the same edition last year. All five Sunday papers were so heavy and hard to handle that hundreds of extra trucks and mailers were put on to deliver them, and some newsdealers, almost buried under the avalanche of paper, delivered copies to homes in two installments.

The strike cost newspapers an estimated $10 million in ad revenue, while the striking employees gave up about $2,000,000 in wages. Even the Photo-Engravers' Union, whose 400 New York newspaper members touched off the shutdown of the city's papers when they refused to arbitrate their differences with the publishers, profited little. They finally agreed to accept a $3.75 weekly package increase, which was almost the same as the publishers' offer (v. the $7.50 the union had demanded), and to let three fact-finders decide if they should get any more. Although the fact-finders' decision is not binding on either the union or the publishers, there was an unwritten understanding that both sides would accept.

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