Daily News, AMI Face Prolonged Displacement

While most of the New York publishing world is back to business as usual after struggling during last week's Hurricane Sandy, tabloid publisher American Media Inc. could join the New York Daily News in being displaced from their 4 New York Plaza headquarters for up to a year.

Both companies were forced to relocate operations after the storm caused power outages and flooding at the lower Manhattan offices. Diesel fuel also is believed to have seeped into the building. 

Daily News chairman Mort Zuckerman said the New York Plaza headquarters were “wiped out” and wouldn’t be habitable for nine months. AMI chairman David Pecker said the landlord originally told him the company could move back into the building in three or four weeks, but said he expected to get an update later today.

The Daily News had been running shuttle busses to get editorial staffers to its New Jersey printing plant, where they had set up temporary operations, and has since leased space elsewhere. Meanwhile, AMI, publisher of Star and The National Enquirer, flew top editors down to its Boca Raton, Fla., headquarters, and has been borrowing space in three separate locations from Reader’s Digest Association’s White Plains office to Brooklyn. 4 New York Plaza has been closed since last week, although a handful of AMI employees were allowed in one day late last week to retrieve staffers' personal belongings.