N.Y. Times: Three New York Moguls in Talks to Buy Newsday

<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/21/business/media/21paper.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin">Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman and James Dolan apparently are bidding to buy Newsday from Sam Zell.</a>

 

Does Zuckerman still own the Daily News?

If Dolan ends up buying Newsday, would the paper's columnists, Knicks and Rangers writers have to fall in line with the MSG/Cablevision propaganda machine?

 

I'd be real nervous if I worked for Newsday. Dolan's a mess. Murdoch's, well, Murdoch. And if he or Zuckerman bought the paper, I would think many people would be phased out of their jobs. Then, there's Zell ...

 

I think I'm rooting for Dolan.

 

You must love car wrecks.

Dolan buys that paper and I'll never plunk down 50 cents for it again. Read today in Part 2 why Cablevision is great!

I didn't think Newsday could get be run any worse. Anyone but Zuckerman gets it and I'll quite clearly be proven wrong.

 

so does that mean someone types furiously into a blackberry to record company meetings??

 

Awesome.

I can see their Knicks coverage now:

Knicks Gallant In Defeat
Late Run Not Enough As Spurs Win, 120-65

Dolan: Eight Is Not Enough
Wonderful And Benevolent Leader Says Playoffs Should Expand To 15 Per Conference

 

I can understand the vote for Dolan -- wouldn't be overlap of staffing that you'd find if Newsday were under the same ownership as either the Daily News or the Post so fewer jobs would be lost, and if either the Daily News or Post teamed up with Newsday it could kill whichever paper was left by itself. That aside, I have to admire Murdoch and Zuckerman despite their shortcomings. The Post and Daily News probably wouldn't be alive if not for them, and Zuckerman just announced he's buying new state-of-the-art presses, an unsual leap of faith when many are saying print is almost dead.

 

To be honest I say Dolan from a competitive standpoint as well as the train-wreck view. However, as I said to someone at the office tonight, I'm not comfortable rooting for the demise of any major newspapers.

I'd guess Dolan has almost no shot at this. If Trib does sell, I'd say it's 60-39-1 Mort-Rupe-Dolan.
I don't know how much personalities are going to play into this, but my guess is Sam Zell would hate Jimmy Dolan's guts. There's a chance he'd get along fabulously with Mort, given their similar backgrounds. There's always the chance that Murdoch would just make an offer that blows everyone else out of the water.

I believe that underestimating Murdoch is always a mistake.

 

Do you gag and vomit and the offal miraculously hits keys to form words?

 

The problem with Dolan is that a.) he's failed at everything he's ever done and b.) he's a dictator. I'm not naive enough to think that whomever buys Newsday won't put his fingerprints on it, but Dolan would lord over every little thing there. I can't even imagine the meetings that would occupy the entire days of management.

He also has less than zero regard for journalists. Again: I'm not naive enough to think Murdoch or Zuckerman give a shit about us. But these guys haven't spent more than a year avoiding public comment about the Knicks nor pulling credentials and/or ordering frozen out writers who dare to dig around the mess that is MSG.

Dolan would be a nightmare of unimaginable proportions.

 

BYH, you actually plunk down money for Newsday? I read the Times, the Post, the Daily News, the WSJ and usually the Star-Ledger almost every day but never Newsday.

A couple of interesting assets that come with Newsday are amNew York and newsday.com, which is generating a lot more revenue than the Post or NYDN sites. amNew York is intriguing because I know a lot of New York bigs who thought it had some potential but never quite realized it. I kinda wonder why Murdoch doesn't just make the Post free.