Union turmoil erupts at Daily News owner as Alden Global Capital pushes buyouts

Tribune Publishing is asking all of its full-time editorial staffers to consider voluntary buyouts at all nine major metro dailies in the chain, which is now controlled by the cost-slashing hedge fund Alden Global Capital.

But turmoil has erupted this week inside the News Guild, which represents eight of the nine major dailies and had been pushing for a national negotiating effort. Two major papers, the flagship Chicago Tribune and the New York Daily News, have opted not to join the negotiating committee. The Daily News, which was spun off into a separate subsidiary called Daily News Enterprises, has been trying to negotiate better terms on its own. The Chicago Tribune, which is under the wider umbrella of Tribune Publishing, is doing the same in a move that apparently upset negotiators at the national Guild level.