Report: Murdoch Eying 'Newsday'

The New York Post, The Wall Street Journal...and now Newsday? Crain's New York Business says Rupert Murdoch is interested in taking the Long Island tabloid off Tribune Co.'s hands, according to "one newspaper industry insider" who is presumably more authoritative than that attribution indicates.

It's hard to see new Tribune chairman Sam Zell rebuffing an approach. In fact, today, reporting a fourth-quarter loss of $78.8 million, he explicitly said he will consider divesting some assets in light of worse-than-expected market conditions.

Murdoch has said in the past that owning Newsday would help him drag the Post into the black. Whether it would pass muster with regulators, however, is another question. The Journal escaped antitrust scrutiny because it's classified as a national paper; Newsday (and its freebie spinoff, AM New York) is very much a local outlet.