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SALE OF GLOBE-DEMOCRAT IN ST. LOUIS ANNOUNCED
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December 24, 1983
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A 30-year-old magazine publisher and his wife announced today that they had signed a contract to buy The St. Louis Globe- Democrat.
The 131-year-old morning newspaper was to have ceased publication Dec. 31 because of financial losses.
Jeffrey M. Gluck and his wife, Debra, who bought The Saturday Review in November 1982, said today that they would take over the newspaper Feb. 24. Citing the terms of their agreement with the current owner, the Newhouse newspaper chain, the Glucks refused to say how much they had paid, who their financial backers were or how they planned to produce and distribute the paper.
Under an agreement that ends Feb. 25, The St. Louis Post-Dispatch and The Globe-Democrat had combined forces to sell advertising, to print and distribute their newspapers. ''So we have two months, two months to set up our whole business side,'' Mr. Gluck said at a news conference in City Hall. Post-Dispatch Announces Shift
A few hours later, Nicholas G. Penniman 4th, the assistant general manager of The Post-Dispatch, an afternoon newspaper, said it would be published as a morning paper starting Feb. 27, two days after the Glucks are to assume control of The Globe-Democrat.
Mr. Gluck said he was not perturbed at the prospect of direct competition. ''We are already the morning paper and it's our turf, not theirs,'' he said. The most recent daily circulation figure for The Globe-Democrat is about 262,600, as against 232,700 for The Post- Dispatch.
Because The Post-Dispatch and The Globe-Democrat had entered into a joint operating agreement under provisions of the Newspaper Preservation Act, the Justice Department entered the picture when The Globe- Democrat announced it would cease publication. The department investigated the planned closing for any antitrust violations, and then advertised for buyers for The Globe- Democrat. Today the department said that with the sale of the newspaper, it had closed its investigation.
J. Paul McGrath, Assistant Attorney General in charge of the department's antitrust division, said, ''The proposed sale will reintroduce commercial competition among daily papers in St. Louis, and will also result in the continuation of two separate newspaper editorial voices.''
The Herald Company, the division of the S. I. Newhouse publishing empire that operated The Globe-Democrat, said in announcing the closing that the paper had lost money for 10 years. Neither the company nor the Government has disclosed loss figures.
Mr. Gluck said at the news conference that his Globe-Democrat would differ little from the existing newspaper. He added that he wanted the writers, graphic designers and conservative columnists to remain with the newspaper. He may inject ''a little fresh air'' into the operation, Mr. Gluck said, but he did not elaborate.
Hints of Concessions
There have been indications that the Glucks's purchase of The Globe-Democrat would be tied to certain concessions by the St. Louis Newspaper Guild, which represents 190 of the paper's 212 employees. Mr. Gluck said he hoped to reach ''a mutually acceptable contract'' with the union and that ''no Globe employee will lose anything'' because of the purchase.
''I haven't heard anything about concessions,'' said Robert A. Steinke, executive secretary of the St. Louis Newspaper Guild. ''I don't know what kind of deal he struck with Newhouse. I don't know where his money is coming from, I know nothing about him except that he has asked for donations for a sinking fund from subscribers of his Saturday Review magazine.''
The Glucks have appealed to Saturday Review subscribers to donate money to cover what they said were short-term losses and to provide the magazine with a cushion for the future.
''I want to meet with him as soon as I can,'' said Mr. Steinke. ''I don't want our people caught in a bind.''
The Glucks said they would operate The Globe-Democrat through their new company, Gluck Media Inc. They will move to St. Louis from the university town of Columbia, Mo., where they publish three magazines, they said.
Mr. Gluck grew up in suburban Chicago and began his career in journalism as a business manager for The Maneater, a student newspaper at the University of Missouri. He left in 1974 to start his own paper, The Campus Digest, which he still publishes.
Two Other Purchases
He and his wife later purchased Missouri Life, a bimonthly magazine characterized by full-color photographs and ''nice stories,'' as Mr. Gluck put it, which has a circulation of about 30,000. They also publish a magazine called Family Journal.
A rival group headed by a St. Louis businessman, Stuart Burstein, said it was still trying to buy The Globe- Democrat. Dan Uhlinger, a copy editor for the newspaper who is a member of that group, said the group had sent off a ''good faith deposit'' of $200,000 to the Herald Company this morning. He said the group had made an offer for The Globe- Democrat, which ''should realize $6 million to $7 million for the Herald Company.''
Nevertheless, Mr. Gluck insisted the deal was ''signed, sealed and delivered.''
Source: https://www.nytimes.com/1983/12/24/us/sale-of-globe-democrat-in-st-louis-announced.html