$200,000,000 DOWN THE DRAIN

EVEN before the photoengravers finally voted to end the strike, many a cost-conscious observer had begun to calculate the final bill that New York would have to pay for its news blackout. The Publishers Association totted up "known overall losses" of $178,900,000. New York's Commerce and Industry Association countered with the whopping figure of $250 million and called it "conservative." As if determined to have the last word, the publishers answered that "the financial setback sustained in the city as a result of the strike is so staggering that it defies any reasonable estimate."

Living High. The newspapers themselves accounted for the biggest blot of red ink: a $101,200,000 loss in sales and ad revenue by the beginning of last week. Salary losses came to $50 million, though the 3,000 printers who started the whole thing continued to live relatively high on a combination of strike benefits and unemployment insurance that averaged $121 a week--which is more than many of the 20,000 idled employees make even when they are working.

Along with all those losses, tax payments dwindled too. The publishers figure that the New York State and Federal governments are out $11 million; on top of that, about $4,000,000 in unemployment benefits was paid out to 10,500 workers.

The city's news dealers figure with some precision that the absence of 5,700,000 papers a day for more than 15 weeks cost them $11 million. At least 30 blind dealers have been forced to go on relief. Other retail merchants can only guess what the strike cost. The Commerce and Industry Association puts the figure at $25 million, plus another $20 million for restaurants and theaters. Particularly hard hit were the restaurateurs, who said business was off 15%, for a $16 million loss. Department stores lost $6,500,000 in a two-month period alone. Hotels took in $2,000,000 less than they did during the same period last year.

Without classified ads to draw customers, said the Real Estate Board, apartment rentals and home sales were off 50%. For the same reason, used-car dealers claimed that they were "badly hurt," and employment agencies were in the doldrums. With no obituaries to stimulate business, florists suffered. Even the wastepaper dealers were in trouble, for the New York Times accounts for no mean percentage of their volume.

Beyond Manhattan. The losses reached far beyond Manhattan. In Canada newsprint mills figured that a cutback of 214,000 tons of newsprint cost them $28.7 million. The railroads that carry the huge rolls of newsprint south lost $2,400,000. "The strike affected the retailers because they couldn't advertise; it curtailed the wholesalers and worked all the way back to the manufacturers," said Executive Secretary Harry Moser of the Retail Merchants' Association. "It hurt everybody." And there is no way to ease the pain. All of it, said the publishers, is money "that has gone down the drain. It cannot be recovered."

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