Ex-newspaper union head faces charges

THE feds are closing in on a former newspaper union official who’s been charged with embezzling hundreds of thousands of dollars during his final two years running a Communications Workers of America local with members at three New York City dailies.

According to a complaint filed Monday in Manhattan federal court, Wayne Mitchell is accused of writing checks from union bank accounts to give himself an extra $250,000 in compensation at a time when the union bounced checks to outside vendors and failed to pay federal and state taxes and pension contributions.

Mitchell, who was president of the 700-member Mailers Local No. 6/CWA Local 14170 until May 2008, is expected to turn himself in to authorities today.

Sources said Mitchell will make an appearance before US District Court Judge James Francis and is currently hammering out a plea deal.

The investigation is the second involving the back-shop operations of newspapers, but is unrelated to a probe by the Manhattan district attorney into the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers union that serves The Post, Daily News, New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Star-Ledger in Newark and El Diario, a Spanish-language daily.

In the complaint against Mitchell, authorities said the union boss admitted to Department of Labor investigators that he received $250,000 in unauthorized payroll checks between Oct. 1, 2004, and May 30, 2008, and that he “embezzled additional union monies by falsely claiming personal expenses as union-related bills.”

Local No. 6 members work inside the printing plants of The Post, Daily News and New York Times, primarily inserting ad circulars and flyers into newspapers after they come off the presses and are handed off to the drivers.

Paper cuts

New York Times Executive Editor Bill Keller began swinging the ax Wednesday — as sources had predicted to Media Ink — in his bid to eliminate 26 jobs and reach a goal of 100 layoffs by year-end.

The biggest surprise was that noted culture writer Eric Konigsberg was among those who received pink slips.

According to sources, Konigsberg told friends that he “couldn’t believe it myself, but I am keen to keep writing about art, so let’s keep talking.”

Insiders said that as of yesterday 18 people had lost their jobs, suggesting that eight more will be laid off in the coming days.

A New York Times spokeswoman declined to give a breakdown of the job cuts but repeated that the layoffs are part of a plan to reduce the newsroom headcount by 100 by the end of the year. As Media Ink previously reported, 74 editorial people stepped forward to accept voluntary buyouts.

Budget deal

Arthur Frommer‘s Budget Travel was sold by the Washington Post Co. to a New York-based investment firm called Fletcher Asset Management, led by Alphonso Fletcher.

The magazine, started promisingly on a shoestring budget by entrepreneur Don Welsh and Frommer, was said to be a money-loser for the Washington Post Co. in recent years, a fact made worse by the struggles of another Washington Post magazine, Newsweek, and recession- induced struggles in the travel industry.

Frommer and the original staff were forced out of the maga zine several years into the Washington Post’s ownership.

The acquiring company is said to be keeping most of the employees.

Editor-in-Chief Nina Willdorf and Publisher Nancy Telliho could not be reached for comment, but are believed to still be on the job. keith.kelly@nypost.com