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Exteriors of The Star-Ledger building in Newark, NJ. (Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger)

By Ted Sherman and Kelly Heyboer/ The Star-Ledger

NEWARK — With a deadline looming Friday, the Star-Ledger and its production unions still have yet to reach a deal that would avoid a threatened shutdown of the state's largest newspaper.

Earlier in the day Wednesday, publisher Richard Vezza expressed optimism the two sides were close to a settlement, and union officials were also confident they would reach a deal before Friday.

By the time talks ended Wednesday night, however, Steve Grant, secretary-treasurer of Teamsters-New Jersey Mailers Local Union 1100 — one of four unions involved in the negotiations, and apparently the last union without a tentative deal — said negotiations had hit an impasse.

“I’ve given all I can give and they wouldn’t take it,” Grant said.“It’s the stubbornness on the part of the company.”

Other union leaders, though, still believe they are close to a resolution.

“I’m still optimistic a deal can be reached,” said Ed Shown, president of the Council of Star-Ledger Unions and also head of Teamsters GCC Local 8-N.

Company officials had no immediate comment.

The unions and the newspaper’s negotiators are scheduled to resume talks again today at the Courtyard by Marriott hotel in downtown Newark, but Grant said he was less hopeful that the two sides would reach a deal.

About 200 represented employees — including pressmen, mailers, warehouse and inventory employees — are affected by the negotiations. The newspaper’s editorial employees, including about 160 reporters, editors and other staff, are not unionized.

The threat to close down the paper has been on the table since June, when all the production unions were given until Friday to agree on a total $9 million in concessions. According to Vezza, The Star-Ledger lost $19 million last year and is on target to lose a similar amount this year. The $9 million target was based on what the paper determined it could save by outsourcing production.

Without new agreements, the publisher said, the paper has no choice but to shut down by the end of the year.

Those close to the ongoing talks said three of the paper’s production unions — the pressmen, engravers and machinists — have already reached agreements in principle. Only the mailers, the largest of the four unions, have yet to come to terms.

According to Grant, his union’s latest offer included 96 percent of the concessions the newspaper requested. Based on the $4.4 million in givebacks the union says the company is seeking from the mailers, that represents a difference of only $176,000.

Mailers handle the newspapers after they emerge from the presses, helping insert advertising supplements and preparing the papers to be loaded on delivery trucks.

Negotiations between the two sides have been contentious at times. Talks had to be moved out of The Star-Ledger’s offices to two nearby hotels after angry words spilled out into a hallway. A letter sent by Vezza to employees in September suggested the sides remained far apart, expressing doubts an agreement could be reached.

But Vezza believed both sides were close Wednesday morning.

“There are still some significant hurdles to go over, but we’re making progress,” he said. “We don’t have a deal yet, but we’re close with some of the unions. We’ve had some very intense negotiations and the talks are going on every day.”

Grant, too, had expressed optimism during a break in the negotiations at the Ramada Plaza Hotel in Newark. By late in the day, he seemed more exasperated.

Vezza said whatever happens, Friday's deadline would remain firm for an agreement.

No one would discuss specific terms, although the mailer’s union said previously that The Star-Ledger was pressing for the elimination of 55 of the mailers’ 121 highest-paid workers, in addition to eliminating pension and retirement benefits and reducing lower-paid mailroom helpers to a four-day work week.

Earlier this year, The Star-Ledger eliminated 34 jobs, including reporters, photographers and editors, in its first ever large-scale layoff. The reductions come as newspapers across the country continue to struggle with drops in circulation and advertising revenue as more readers get their news via the internet.

The Star-Ledger, the winner of three Pulitzer Prizes, is New Jersey’s largest daily newspaper. It has one of the largest Statehouse bureaus in the nation and has won numerous state and national awards for its reporting and investigations, including the New Jersey Press Association’s general excellence award the last three years in a row.

The newspaper is part of Advance Publications, owned by the Newhouse family. The private company is not required to publicly disclose its earnings.

Several other Advance publications, including newspapers in Michigan, Louisiana and Oregon, have drastically reduced their staff, reduced the number of days they print or reorganized their companies to focus on their websites.

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