Trib Redux

New daily for New York

Among the 3 million New Yorkers who buy a newspaper every morning, there is an enduring mass of mourners for the lively, respectable Herald Tribune, which expired in 1966. Or so Publisher Leonard Saffir, 47, devoutly hopes. This week, to compete with the brassy Daily News and the New York Times, which he has dubbed "fat and stuffy," Saffir begins publishing a new Manhattan morning paper called the Trib.

The tabloid (first-year circulation goal: 200,000) is expected to be editorially conservative. Its board of directors includes James Buckley, former Conservative-Republican Senator from New York, whose political aide and consultant Saffir used to be. Ousted as chairman of the board last October was former Secretary of the Treasury William Simon, who Saffir claimed was trying to use the paper to further his own political ambitions. Simon, however, remains a stockholder.

The Trib will "fight for a better climate for business," wrote Saffir in a signed editorial appearing in the paper's first edition, because "when profits soar payrolls fatten, jobs increase, happiness spreads." The Trib will also "demand a fair policy for labor without self-destructive strikes, brass knuckles and police cordons." Another editorial, on New York's new mayor, Ed Koch, is innocuous. It declares that the paper is neither for him nor against him; it will wait to see how he does. (Presumably, Koch will get good marks at least this week, since he has solemnly proclaimed Jan. 9, the first day of its publication, Trib Day.) Besides hard news and sports coverage, the first 72-page issue also contains a number of feature sections on TV, education and the arts that are similar to newsmagazine departments.

The Trib has a fresh, modern look, and its newsroom is equipped with the latest in computer terminals, on which copy is fitted and transmitted to its New Jersey printing plant. The slim editorial staff of 77 includes two Pulitzer prizewinners, Managing Editor Fred Sparks and Art Critic Emily Genauer. With only a single bureau--one man in Washington --the new paper will rely heavily on United Press International and Reuters for national and international stories. Its resemblance to the old Herald Tribune is largely in name only, and even that is in dispute. The owners of the International Herald Tribune want to enjoin the Trib from using the HT's old nickname. Saffir scoffs at the trademark-violation charge but fears that if he loses the name, his paper is sunk.

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