Newspaper Payout Plan In Closings Clears Court.

A judge this week approved a plan in which Journal Register Company, the newspaper chain that owns The New Haven Register, would emerge from bankruptcy with its shareholders wiped out and its creditors promised only about a third of what they were owed -- but with enough money left over to award bonuses to its top executives for closing plants and laying off workers. That last part did not sit well with, among others, Richard Blumenthal, the attorney general of Connecticut, and the Newspaper Guild, a union representing some employees. They opposed the $1.3 million in incentive payments to 31 company officials, some of it explicitly identified in bankruptcy filings as their prize for shutting small papers and eliminating jobs. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]