Murdoch vows to buy Newsday

News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said yesterday that he expects to wrap up his $580-million purchase of Newsday in as little as a week, and that the efforts of another potential buyer will fail.

"This is a great market and this will give us a very powerful position," the owner of the New York Post and The Wall Street Journal told reporters during a conference call with financial analysts. Murdoch said he expects Newsday to add $100 million to News Corp.'s cash flow.

Murdoch spoke with analysts about News Corp.'s latest quarterly earnings of $2.7 billion, and made his comments about Newsday in a follow-up session with reporters.

Asked about a higher $650-million bid from Bethpage-based Cablevision Systems Corp., Murdoch said: "No, I don't think Cablevision will prevail. Just be patient a couple of days." Murdoch rival Mortimer Zuckerman, owner of the Daily News, has also submitted a competing $580-million bid for the paper.

Gary Weitman, spokesman for Newsday parent company Tribune Co., declined to comment, as did a representative for the Daily News. Charlie Schueler, a spokesman for Cablevision, declined to comment.

Meanwhile, union officials affiliated with Newsday and the Post met yesterday to discuss possible future operating plans. "They all believe Murdoch will get Newsday," said Dennis Grabhorn, president of the Graphic Communications Conference Local 406, adding that executives of Local 406 and Local 2 believe Murdoch will increase his $580-million bid if necessary to get the paper.

As for his offer, Murdoch told the analysts: "We will continue to be disciplined in our pursuit."

Grabhorn said the two unions discussed what they said was News Corp.'s plan to build a "super print center," possibly in Nassau, that would print Newsday, the Post and the Journal. Newsday's current plant is outdated, Grabhorn said, and can't print broadsheets such as the Journal.

"He would definitely want new presses," Grabhorn said of Murdoch, adding that the unions had begun talks to develop a "working relationship" over any new division of work. Local 2 officials could not be reached.

Murdoch yesterday suggested Newsday would continue vigorous local coverage.

"We see Newsday continuing to be a very important local newspaper covering two of the greatest counties in America and wealthiest counties in America, and the Post covering basically the city of New York, a paper with a very different character," he said. "We're not putting them [together] to be one newspaper. But there are great savings in printing and distribution and normal back office [functions]. There's a lot we can do together and we'll pursue that."

Murdoch also said he doesn't expect problems with the Federal Communications Commission following a Newsday purchase.

"That's something which would be handled when our licenses come up for renewal on TV and we're confident we'll get through that, even if we have to go to court," he told analysts. He later added, "There are no issues anywhere. We don't have any [circulation] overlap, other than 7 percent with Newsday. There's no possibility of antitrust with Newsday."

Murdoch said completion of a deal was imminent, and suggested he'd hold Tribune chief executive Sam Zell to his April handshake deal to sell him Newsday.

"We're hoping to wrap it up within the next week and I don't mean the end of next week, I mean within the next seven days. It takes two to agree, but we're at a pretty advanced stage," said Murdoch. "I trust Mr. Zell absolutely. He's famous for being a man of his word. We think everything's in hand."

Media analyst John Morton said News Corp.'s bid probably makes the most sense for Newsday and workers.

He agrees that Murdoch could "form this into a profitable operation even if he didn't do [anything]," because of the print and distribution synergies. Added Morton, "If I were working for Newsday, I'd sure want to be working for a newspaper man."

MURDOCH'S EMPIRE

Major media assets of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

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