It is an old joke on Fleet Street that the owners of Britain's newspapers may come and go but it is the unions that run the show. And a costly show it is. Fleet Street has been plagued for years by strikes, late press runs and overstaffing. Except for the Sun, a screeching Rupert Murdoch tabloid, most London papers are either losing money or making minuscule profits.
No wonder then that Fleet Street's proprietors are trying to pare expenses by modernizing plants and cutting work forces. One owner whose efforts foundered is Lord Hartwell, whose family has run the Daily Telegraph...