An Unsettled Situation p. 18

By: Mark Fitzgerald

Jewish charity approves Long Island newspaper option but
concedes that it will not resolve the dispute among papers sp.

DIRECTORS OF THE largest Jewish charity in New York formally approved a plan that will give the charity's Long Island, N.Y., donors a choice between two Jewish newspapers.
At the same time, the charity, United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, took the first step toward eliminating its controversial "subsidy" of the Jewish Week.
In a statement, UJA-Federation president Alan Jaffe said the charity "over a three-to-five-year period will begin to reduce the cost for purchasing newspaper subscriptions for contributors."
For several years, the charity annually had paid the Jewish Week $825,000 for subscriptions mailed to about 82,000 households. Competing Jewish newspaper publishers said this is an unfair "subsidy" to the Jewish Week.
Jaffe said the subscription cost would be reduced by $100,000 in the first year, "with the goal of becoming revenue-neutral by the end of the fifth year."
As previously reported, the plan permits Long Island contributors to the UJA-Federation to receive either the Jewish Week ? the newspaper contributors have received for years ? or the Long Island Jewish World, whose publisher has tangled with the charity because of its longtime support of the Jewish Week (E&P, Feb. 5, p. 12).
This summer, Long Island residents who contribute $36 or more to the charity will receive both the Jewish Week and Jewish World for a four-week period. At the end of the promotional period, individual donors will choose which paper, if any, they want to receive. Those who do not make a choice will continue to receive the Jewish Week.
During the closed UJA-Federation board meeting March 3, a few directors reportedly balked at the plan because it does not extend the option to other area Jewish newspapers, notably the Forward and Jewish Press.
Jewish Press publisher Rabbi Sholom Klass has announced that his Orthodox weekly will reject all future UJA-Federation advertising because of its connection to the competing Jewish Week (E&P, Feb. 26, p. 14).
UJA-Federation chairman Irwin Hochberg, in a telephone interview, acknowledged that this latest action is unlikely to settle the issue.
"My opinion is that this is a moving target," Hochberg said. "I don't think it's going to go away. Given the fact that newspapers change in quality, new papers emerge, the population shifts, we will have to be alert to that. We've made a decision [for] where we are now. Who knows what will happen in two years, five years, 10 years?"
Hochberg also suggested that there might be a change in another situation that has nettled New York Jewish newspapers: the fact that some people serve on the boards of both UJA-Federation and the Jewish Week.
Klass, for instance, said the interlocking membership amounts to "collusion" between the charity and a "privately owned" newspaper.
Hochberg is on both boards because the bylaws require it, but he said that should change.
"In my opinion, an officer of UJA-Federation should not be on the board of Jewish Week. This is a personal comment," he said.
Jewish World owner Jerome Lippman, the publisher immediately benefited by the UJA-Federation action, called the board's decision a good "first step."
"All newspapers serving the Jewish community with a responsible, professional vehicle should be part and parcel of an option system," Lippman said. "I am happy to have been recognized as a newspaper that is serving our community and the Jewish people by the UJA, which is a very worthy charity."
For its part, the Jewish Week expects to remain "as strong as ever" even with the option plan, newspaper board member Perry Galler said.
UJA-Federation's decision to decrease the cost of its subscription buying is not a big change, Galler suggested. "The fact is that each and every year, the net amount the UJA-Federation has spent on Jewish Week has decreased as Jewish Week became stronger financially," he said.
Galler said editorial improvements initiated by new publisher Gary Rosenblatt are winning praise and will win new readers.
"It's a slow process, of course. As the [New York] Post and [New York Daily] News and others know, it's hard to sell newspapers," he said.
The option plan will be monitor-
ed by a UJA-Federation committee chaired by Judah Gribetz, a prominent Manhattan lawyer.