The Wall Street Journal reports that Mortimer Zuckerman and Rupert Murdoch have been joined by Cablevision in the bidding war for Newsday, the Long Island daily owned by Sam Zell’s Tribune Company. Cablevision, perhaps joined by Jared Kushner, owner of the New York Observer, is reportedly willing to make a bid of $650 million for the paper. This means both Murdoch and Zuckerman will have to raise their original offers if they hope to stay in the game.
Besides potentially offering the highest bid, Cablevision would likely face the fewest regulatory hurdles should it acquire the paper, and the company’s chairman, Charles Dolan, “sees potential in the geographic overlap of Newsday and Cablevision's subscriber base, as well as its News12 news service,” the Journal says. But as the New York Times explains, “the struggle for Newsday has been seen primarily as one between two media moguls, Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Zuckerman, and an extension of the long rivalry between their tabloids. Combining with Newsday, also a tabloid, could help one gain an advantage in the competition for readers and advertisers.”
If this is to be a competition between the two moguls, Editor and Publisher reports that Zell would prefer to do the deal with Murdoch because, “they have a budding relationship.” However, the Associated Press reported last week that opposition to Murdoch from consumer and congressional groups with monopoly concerns in gaining traction. All of this has Phil Rosenthal in the Chicago Tribune asking, “Who would wrangle over a newspaper?” He wonders whether the bidders missed the news that “tomorrow newspapers are as worthless as last week's weather forecasts.”
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