Disaster in the Afternoon

By Janice Castro

The Daily News retrenches after a major expansion flops

The plans were as ambitious--and possibly as ill-conceived--as any newspaper publisher has hatched in recent memory. Last August, faced with a precipitous circulation decline, New York's Daily News (circ. 1.5 million) launched an evening edition, called Tonight, as part of a $20 million revitalization campaign. Once America's biggest daily, the News lost that title to the Wall Street Journal (circ. 1.9 million) in 1979. Tonight was supposed to halt the News's circulation losses (450,000 since 1975) by adding "up-scale" readers and advertisers to the morning tabloid's traditional blue-collar audience. A flotilla of special sections and dozens of new feature writers and columnists were deployed under Clay Felker, 52, the founder of New York and New West. Said Robert M. Hunt, president and publisher of the News: "This is an extraordinary undertaking intended to make a great newspaper even greater."

Ten months later, the once mighty News is staggering. News Editor Michael O'Neill announced last week that Felker will no longer edit Tonight, because he wants to pursue "outside interests." Felker's shift to consultant status was greeted with relief by some in the newsroom; they had feared that Chicago's Tribune Co., owner of the Daily News, was preparing to shut down Tonight--or even sell the News. The Hearst Corp. reportedly has turned down an opportunity to buy the News, though spokesmen for both companies deny it. In any case, O'Neill, 58, has begun an ominous retrenchment: some special sections have been cut nearly in half, further cuts are expected soon, and distribution in outlying suburban areas is being slashed. News editors are not ruling out staff layoffs. Says New York Post Circulation Director Martin Fischbein: "Tonight has been a financial disaster for them. The only thing keeping it going is macho and ego."

The News evidently picked a fight it could not win. Australian Press Lord Rupert Murdoch, owner of the sensation-mongering New York Post (circ. 732,000), counterattacked with a new morning edition. Across town, the New York Times (circ. 931,000) was not impressed; it grew in circulation (up 16,000 since last year) and advertising linage (up from 57% to 60% of the three-paper total). "We're fat and sassy," says Times Executive Editor A.M. Rosenthal. "If this is a war, we're not in the trenches."

Tonight was plagued by a lack of editorial coordination. Coverage was too frequently duplicated (five entertainment editors, seven gossip writers). Many veteran staffers resented the Felker recruits, contemptuously labeled "boutique journalists" by Bareknuckle Columnist Jimmy Breslin. Bad planning and production problems turned the revamped multisection paper into an incomprehensible jumble; it became a challenge just to find the old pictorial centerfold, and a near impossibility to locate the TV listings.

The up-scale commuters who were supposed to read Tonight on homebound trains snoozed instead or worse, bought the eye-catching Post. Concedes James Wieghart, assistant to the editor: "There was something going on out there that we didn't measure in advance." That something was the Post's surprising appeal to sophisticated people who read the Times in the morning and wanted a little mayhem and cheesecake at the end of the day. Tonight's circulation, projected at upwards of 300,000, is now 95,000, only 25,000 more than the Night Owl edition (out at 7:45 p.m.), which it replaced. Though Tonight has better educated, more affluent readers than the morning edition, it did not get enough of them to attract prestigious advertisers like Bloomingdale's and Brooks Brothers regularly. Meanwhile, Post circulation has risen by 78,000 (11%) in the past year. Says Post Executive Editor Roger Wood: "When they announced the Tonight edition, we had no idea that it was going to be the rather sorry animal it is. That's why we went into the morning field when we did." The Post is there to stay: that edition now accounts for 40% of its press run.

As News staffers prepared to carry out retrenchment plans last week, fears of an impending sale flared anew with the disclosure that the Tribune Co. had shelled out $20.5 million to purchase the perennially money-losing Chicago Cubs baseball team. Cracked one harried News editor: "They're going to install lights at Wrigley Field and call the team the Chicago Cubs Tonight." This hefty neighborhood investment by the Tribune Co. reinforced the sense that the Chicago company would rather be rid of its prodigal son in New York. But who would buy it? Even Post Owner Murdoch, long rumored to covet his giant rival, professed a lack of interest. Busily tinkering with his latest acquisition, the Times of London, Murdoch said, "I don't think there is anything I could do to make it viable." Which is almost exactly what he said about the Times--before he picked it up at a bargain price last year. --By Janice Castro.

Reported by Barbara B. Dolan and Elizabeth Rudulph/New York

With reporting by Barbara B. Dolan, Elizabeth Rudulph

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