Former Daily News co-owner Robert Drasner, tabloid wars dealmaker, dies at 96

Fred Drasner, the former New York cabdriver who became one of the city’s most recognizable tabloid executives, died April 4 at 83 in Wellington, Florida. He spent years as Mort Zuckerman’s partner in the fierce Daily News fight against the New York Post and New York Newsday, and never shed the edge that made him a force in New York publishing.

Raised in Brooklyn, Drasner became co-owner, chief executive and co-publisher of the Daily News after Zuckerman bought the paper out of bankruptcy in 1993 for $36 million in cash. The purchase followed a five-month strike in 1990, the paper’s sale by Tribune Company, and Robert Maxwell’s brief and troubled ownership in 1991. Drasner became one of the public faces of the paper’s marketing push, including the line, “The Daily News. It’s the most New York you can get.”

Drasner’s reach went well beyond the tabloid. He bought U.S. News & World Report in 1985 and remained chief executive and co-chairman until 2004. He also founded Applied Graphics Technologies in 1985, took it public in 1996 and stayed on as chairman and chief executive until the company was sold in 2003. That combination of magazine, newspaper and technology holdings made him a familiar dealmaker across New York media.

When Drasner stepped down from day-to-day leadership of the Daily News in 2004 and moved into a senior adviser role, Zuckerman praised his “enthusiasm, skill and knowledge” in publishing. Martin Dunn, the paper’s former editor-in-chief, remembered him as a tough businessman with a sympathetic side and said Drasner understood printing, distribution and editorial operations in a way few executives did. That blend of street toughness and operating discipline helped define the era when New York tabloids still lived and died by sharp elbows, tight logistics and relentless competition.