
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, July 10, 1993                   TAG: 9307100116
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: NEW YORK                                LENGTH: Short

NEW YORK POST SEEMS TO HAVE FOLDED

The New York Post, the zesty tabloid that thrived on adversity, faced a bleak future Friday as Rupert Murdoch and unions failed to come to terms and he dropped his bid to buy it.

When a 4 p.m. deadline passed without agreement on new cost-cutting contracts, negotiators for Murdoch said he canceled his agreement to run the nation's oldest daily.

Murdoch's move bounced the 192-year-old paper back to a bankruptcy court judge Monday and put its future in doubt.

The newspaper's 725 employees were preparing to put out today's edition, but it was canceled. So employees cleaned out their desks and left.

"It's over," said John Morsch of the Stereotypers union.

"My cynical journalist self says . . . he'll suspend publication for a few days, then resume negotiations," reporter Tim McDarrah said.

- Associated Press

by CNB