Murdoch Bidding for Newsday

MoneyNews
Friday, March 21, 2008
NEW YORK -- A trio of media moguls are vying to buy the Long Island newspaper Newsday from the debt-laden Tribune Co, the New York Times reported on Thursday, citing people involved in the sale process.

The newspaper identified the bidders as Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, real estate and publishing mogul Mortimer Zuckerman, and James Dolan, whose family controls Cablevision Systems Corp. News Corp owns The New York Post, while Zuckerman owns rival New York City tabloid The Daily News.

People involved in the Newsday sale declined to name a price tag, but a newspaper industry analyst quoted in the report estimated it could be worth $350 million to $400 million.

The sale process is described as a soft auction in which investment bankers are approaching a selected number of buyers, the newspaper said.

The Tribune Co, which went private in a buyout last year led by real estate tycoon Sam Zell, owns several other newspapers, including The Chicago Tribune and The Los Angeles Times, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team, which it is also trying to sell.

The newspaper industry has fallen on tough times and Tribune Co has been particularly hard hit. It reported a fourth-quarter loss earlier Thursday with ad revenue down by 15 percent for the period.

Newsday last year reported weekday circulation of 387,000, 10th-highest in the country, and the highest for a newspaper based in a suburban area, the Times said.

A person briefed on Zuckerman's plans confirmed that "he definitely intends to bid on it," but added that no formal process had begun yet, the Times reported.

A Tribune spokesman, a News Corp spokesman and Zell all declined to comment on the report when contacted by Reuters.

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