NYC Tabloid News: The Post Sells Madoff’s Polo Shirts, Daily News Spends $150 Million For New Presses

Whatever it takes to stay afloat...Image by inju via Flickr

Journos normally don’t participate in the events they cover, but the New York Post — which sent at least three staffers to the first Madoff auction Saturday — bought Madoff’s three white polo shirts and is now using them as prizes in a contest; the shirts sold for a grand total of $1,300.

The Daily News, owned by Mortimer Zuckerman, has invested $150 million in new printing presses, with enough power and excess capacity to print papers for others as well.

The question is whether the investment makes business sense; the answer may never be made public because the privately held paper does not disclose its financial performance. Mr. Zuckerman signed the deal for the equipment almost two years ago, before the drop in advertising turned into a free fall, and before the weekday circulation of The Daily News fell to less than 550,000, from more than 700,000. He conceded that the paper, which had been marginally profitable for years, is at “worse than break-even.”

“I’ve been a contrarian for my entire business career,” said Mr. Zuckerman, a real estate mogul who also owns the magazine U.S. News & World Report. He said he understood skepticism about his Daily News investment, but “my commitment here is to the long term.”

The two tabs continue to compete for New York City newspaper readers with the Times, The Wall Street Journal (now adding a new city news staff) and the Observer, a weekly. The New York Sun died in September 2008 after six years.

I read the Post, Times and Journal every day, in hard copy. A former Daily News staffer, I skip it now. I invest my news-consumption time in BBC World News, BBC television and on-line Canadian and British newspapers instead.