Zuckerman to Post: You're wrong p. 17

By: Editorial Staff

NEW YORK DAILY News owner Mort Zuckerman confirmed that he is planning to sell a Washington, D.C., hotel but strongly denied the New York Post's suggestion he needs the money for the Daily News.
"The Post story is, as usual, almost entirely made up out of whole cloth," Zuckerman told E&P.
Zuckerman said the Post, one of three rival tabloids, accurately reported Sept. 14 that he planned to sell the Park Hyatt in the nation's capital, but that profit, not need, was the motive.
"This is a strong market, he said, "and I'm in this business to make money."
The Post account by Jonathan Auerbach said: "Publishing executives said Zuckerman might need the money for the Daily News, where he is spending heavily to try and rejuvenate the paper."
"Totally false," said Zuckerman, who said a new color printing plant planned for Jersey City, N.J., was fully financed and the paper he bought from bankruptcy nearly two years ago was profitable. Zuckerman also faulted the Post's $50 million price tag for the hotel as too low and said the paper was wrong about details of his deals with newsprint vendors.
The Post has reported that Zuckerman has been buying newsprint on credit for two years, during which he paid only about $4 million in interest and instead posted a $100 million letter of credit, two-thirds personally guaranteed. With the arrangement about to expire, the Post said, the Daily News' annual newsprint costs will soar to about $50 million.
Zuckerman declined to say what was wrong with the account.