NEW YORK - Seveny-nine New York Post workers decided to resign and take a buyout offered as part of a labor settlement to save the tabloid, union and newspaper officials said Wednesday. The paper had sought only 43 resignations from the 350-member Newspaper Guild as part of $19 million in union concessions owner Peter S. Kalikow said he needed to make the paper profitable. The 505,000-circulation paper has been losing $27 million a year. The Guild resignations mean the Post will lose close to 200 of its 960 workers. Agreements reached last week call for 100 forced resignations from the 263-member drivers union and five from the Post's 17 paper handlers. Guild members resigning include employees from editorial, advertising, circulation, and accounting. Post Editor Jerry Nachman said about 40 of the 79 resignations were from the editorial department. ``It's not a number I like, or I'm happy with,'' said Nachman. Members of the union had until 5 p.m. Wednesday to resign and collect full severance plus eight weeks shut down pay. Kalikow had improved the buyout offer before guild members voted Monday on concessions slashing their pay 20 percent as part of a four-day work week. The Guild had been the holdout among 11 unions that gave job and wage cuts sought by Kalikow. Kalikow had said he would shut down the 189-year-old paper if any one union refused the grant concessions. Kalikow said Tuesday that the concessions from unions and cuts in overhead and among the managerial staff will allow the paper to be profitable by Oct. 1. That would be the first profit since the 1970s. Among the 79 staffers to resign was sports columnist Peter Vecsey, who had previously told the newspaper he was leaving when his contract expired in November. He will write a twice-weekly sports column for USA Today. He also recently signed to be a reporter on NBC's NBA pre-game show, ``The Insiders.'' Peter Faris, Post vice president for editorial and administration, said Vecsey's resignation was ``divorced from the buyout scenario although as a Guild member he is availing himself of the opportunity.''
