'Daily News' staff must choose bidder today

NEW YORK - Employees at the New York Daily News, the last group holding out against approving the winning bid for the bankrupt Maxwell tabloid, will have to decide by today among the various bidders for the newspaper, writes Larry Black.

The directors and creditors' committee had already reached an agreement in principle last week with Conrad Black, the Canadian publisher of the Daily Telegraph, who has offered to pay dollars 75m for the newspaper.

But the unions managed to win an extension of the deadline from the judge overseeing the sale.

Final binding bids were to have been submitted over the weekend, but a court-appointed trustee decided instead to convene yet another meeting of the interested parties late yesterday in New York. Judge Tina Brozman insists that one of the bids is accepted, at least in principle, by 4pm New York time today.

The employees have tried to pit Mr Black against a rival bidder, the magazine publisher Mort Zuckerman, and have lined up an equity investor, Silver Screen Partners, for their own offer.