Sad News

by Mike Newall

Daily News columnist Stu Bykofsky steps outside the paper's 15th Street entrance. "Let's get out of the wind," he says, zipping up his 76ers jacket. He turns the corner and stands in the loading dock area. He lights a cigarette. It's mid-afternoon, the day after Daily News and Inquirer owners Philadelphia Newspapers LLC suddenly announced they were filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.

"Someone from KYW called me last night and asked me to comment," says Bykofsky. "I told them I'd be reluctant to do that since I didn't know the first thing about what the hell was going on."

Bankruptcy came as a surprise, but not a total shock. The papers are nearly $400 million in debt, and the owners haven't been able to make interest payments since summer. The Chapter 11 filing threatens the Daily News' existence in particular. Creditors have argued for its closure for months, and when the courtroom dust settles, probably in a year or so, there is a strong chance that, after years of speculation, the People Paper could be shuttered.

"Let's go inside," says Bykofsky.

The newsroom is long and wide with nondescript carpeting and cubicle banks. There are no groups of reporters huddled around discussing the bankruptcy. It's quiet. Many desks are empty. The place has been decimated by staffing cuts. The columnists have offices.

Bykofsky has been with the Daily News for 39 years. He is tall, with graying hair and round glasses. A fading centerfold of Ann Jillian, the actress who played Mae West in a 1982 made-for-TV movie, hangs near his desk.

"I had a relationship with her," he says, settling into his chair. "Platonic, sadly. She had a husband then — maybe still does today — an ex-cop from Chicago, I think."

He picks up his phone and thanks a reader complimenting that morning's column on illegal handguns. Then, he launches into an argument about why the paper must start charging for its online content.

"Giving it away for free is moronic," he says.

Custom Canvas + a $30 Gift Voucher Applicable to the Customer's Next Purchase | 50% Off Puppia's Highly Rated Harnesses for Dogs of All Sizes from Barrett's Boutique | 5 day / 4 night VIP Cancun Getaway at the Grand Coco Bay For 2 Adults & 2 Children + Maya Gods Tour | Designer Dog Collars and More from Barrett's Boutique! | $34 for a 20x20 Instagram Canvas Print from PixWraps ($129 value) | iPhone 4G/4S Case w/ External Battery Pack from Apple XoXo (Black or White) - Free Shipping! | $19.99 for NEW Premium Take Home Teeth Whitening Treatment w/LED light w/Free Shipping ($50 Value) | $29 for a Heart Rate Monitor Watch with Free Shipping ($74 value) | 3-Month Supply of Dr. Oz-Recommended Raspberry Ketone Weight Loss Formula With Free Shipping!! | Two Packs of 12" Multicolored LED Balloons with Free Shipping! (10 Balloons)

HALF OFF DEPOT

Why live life at full price?

But who will pay for it?

"Retirees who've moved away from Philadelphia, for starters," he says. "Five dollars a month."

"I call people who don't want to pay for our product freeloaders. If they don't want to pay, well, fuck 'em."

A few doors down, gossip columnist Dan Gross, who is also president of the Newspaper Guild Local 38010, has just returned from a union meeting. Gross is in his early 30s. He wears glasses and a blue sweater over a button-up. A Fletch poster hangs on his wall. He takes a minute to address the glee local bloggers are expressing over the bankruptcy.

"It's the wet dream of some of these people that the Daily News goes out of business," he says. "Well, that's just a shitty attitude. For the most part, the city's news still originates from us."

Then he excuses himself. He has a column to write: Charles Barkley is facing jail time over DUI charges and Lindsay Lohan's father, Michael, has agreed to fight Q102's Rocco in a local celebrity boxing bout.

Further down the hall, columnist Elmer Smith sits barefoot, stretching out his toes, as he types out a piece on the state's video poker proposals. Smith's a big guy with a bald head. He is wearing a mustard-colored shirt. His shoes are under his desk. Before becoming a columnist, he was the paper's boxing reporter. Back in the '80s and '90s, he would be dispatched to Vegas a week before big fights, filing daily stories and, then, on fight night, struggling to meet the paper's 11:50 p.m. copy deadline.

"It was a wonderful kind of pressure," he says, remembering the days before the Internet changed everything. "What made it so good was that most guys couldn't do it."

Back in the newsroom, Assistant City Editor David Preston is taking a coffee break.

"Want some?" he says. "It's free."

We sit down in a conference room, known as the Flamingo Room, for its pink walls, on which hang portraits of the Daily News' legendary personalities from decades past. Pete Dexter. Larry McMullen. Chuck Stone. People who consistently wrote stories that helped a city understand itself.

"It's the wall of fame," says Preston.

Not too long ago, the Daily News published a story about a man who was killed over a sandwich. The man worked at a deli counter, and was thrown through a plate glass window by another man who was upset the deli man always got his sandwich wrong. The paper published the story without saying what kind of sandwich it was. That shouldn't happen.

"We're doing the best we can with the resources we have left," says Preston. Then he goes back to work.

Dispatch is filed from all corners of the city. E-mail mike.newall@citypaper.net.