Mort Says 'Daily News' Sliding into the Red

In his ongoing battle with Rupert Murdoch, Mort Zuckerman has long possessed the ultimate bragging rights: His New York Daily News makes money, while Murdoch's Post loses truckloads of it. But maybe not for much longer.

Speaking to a British parliamentary committee tasked to study media ownership, Zuckerman recently confessed that the News may fail to turn a profit this year owing to falling ad revenues. He dismissed the growth of ad spending on newspaper websites as "substituting pennies for dollars."

Over the years, Zuckerman has used the News's money-making status to belittle the Post. As a "non-economic competitor," he's said, the Post could pump up circulation without regard to cost, while the News had to consider its bottom line.

The strategy paid off for the Post -- sort of. In Oct. 2006, the Post was able to claim for the first time that it had surpassed the News in circulation. But a year later, the News was back on top -- and still charging 50 cents a copy to the Post's 25.

Don't feel bad, Rupert. Once the News crosses into the red, you can start disparaging it as a "non-economic competitor," too.