Developer Wins the Bidding for N.Y. Daily News : Media: Court approval of the $36.3-million offer by Mortimer B. Zuckerman means the Big Apple will continue to have four newspapers.

NEW YORK — A federal bankruptcy judge took a step Monday toward preserving New York City as a four-newspaper town, approving the sale of New York’s Daily News to real estate developer and publisher Mortimer B. Zuckerman.

U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Tina L. Brozman approved Zuckerman’s $36.3-million bid for the News, which has been in bankruptcy proceedings since shortly after the death last year of British press baron Robert Maxwell.

Zuckerman’s offer was the only one still on the table, and its failure would have meant almost certain death for the 73-year-old tabloid.

Under Zuckerman’s contract, the sale must close by the end of the year. A Daily News spokesman and officials of several unions said there appeared to be little now that could derail the deal.

Zuckerman still must come to terms with the Newspaper Guild, which represents about 530 of the newspaper’s editorial, advertising and clerical workers. He wants to eliminate about 170 Guild jobs. But the Guild’s ability to interfere with the sale is limited because there is no other prospective buyer, and all but one of the paper’s nine other unions have already agreed to contract concessions.

“The important thing is that the judge has declared us the buyer,” Zuckerman said. He said he expects to win an agreement with the Guild and plans to swiftly bring management leadership to a paper that has largely been left to drift over the last two years. He confirmed that the News would continue to target a mainly blue-collar audience. “It’s not a paper for the elite,” Zuckerman said.

The judge approved the sale after eliminating one big obstacle, a contract signed in 1974 that guarantees 167 printers lifetime jobs. The judge voided the contract with the New York Typographical Union Local 6 after negotiations for concessions on the contract failed.

Zuckerman had demanded a sharp cut in the number of printers because their work can now be done by computers. Zuckerman said elimination of the workers will save the News $10 million per year.

Zuckerman, 54, owns U.S. News & World Report, as well as a 50% interest in Boston Properties, a real estate concern with holdings in the Northeast, Los Angeles and San Francisco. He has said that he will invest heavily in modernizing the News, including building a color printing plant. Industry analysts say such a plant would cost well over $100 million.

The News remains locked in a fierce circulation battle with New York’s two other tabloids, New York Newsday and the New York Post, and the three compete with the New York Times for a share of New York’s newspaper market. Newsday is owned by Times Mirror Co., parent of the Los Angeles Times.

Newspaper industry analysts have long questioned whether New York can continue to support three tabloids. John S. Reidy, an analyst with Smith Barney Harris Upham & Co., noted that the recession has caused a sharp drop in classified and retail advertising, and that survival of the three probably depends on a rapid turnaround of New York’s economy. He added: “There is no immediate flashing green light that this economy has turned around.”

Howard Seife, a lawyer for the News’ creditors, said the paper is expected to lose between $7 million and $10 million in 1992. Zuckerman said he expects the paper to return to profitability “pretty quickly” but declined to make a specific projection.