Newsday

Who is Rivka Galchen, M.D.? The author of Atmospheric Disturbances, which according to Leon Neyfakh is, "a winding, psychological quest story involving weather control, quantum theory, and an intricately calibrated, radically counterintuitive conception of space and time..." She also may be the new Thomas Pynchon. PLUS: The return of Mark Leyner.

Choire Sicha bravely asks, "Why can’t men write anymore?" According to Mr. Sicha, "A little penis, it turns out, can be a dangerous thing. But it’s not crazy at all to feel bad for the young male writers of our time, despite all they have done to us with their books. There are these legends that loom; all women, all terrifying."  read more »

On the afternoon of May 10, when word got out that Rupert Murdoch was dropping his bid to buy Newsday, the writing was on the wall: For a likely $650 million, the odd-couple father-and-son team of Chuck and Jim Dolan would be the paper’s new owners.

So on May 11, Newsday’s business desk dispatched reporter Ellen Yan to the Dolans’ compound in Oyster Bay Cove to try to buttonhole the new owners for a story.

She looked for their house, having bought a flower in case it, in turn, might buy a little goodwill—it was Mother’s Day, after all!  read more »

Earlier, I wrote that some Democrats are not very enthusiastic about seeing fellow Democrat Jimmy Dahroug make a third attempt to unseat Republican State Senator Caesar Trunzo on Long Island.

Today's Newsday has more on the story.  read more »

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The Dolans win the bidding for the Long Island daily for $650 million. The deal is structured the way Sam Zell needed it to be--the Dolans pick up 97 percent of the company, while the Tribune company retains 3 percent. Here's the release:

CABLEVISION TO ACQUIRE 97% STAKE IN NEWSDAY MEDIA GROUP THROUGH PARTNERSHIP WITH TRIBUNE COMPANY IN A $650 MILLION TRANSACTION

Returns Newsday to Long Island-based Ownership After Nearly 40 Years  read more »

Later this morning, Newsday should belong to the Dolans.

Their $650 million bid will likely be accepted by Tribune owner Sam Zell later this morning, and the only thing that stands in the way are "minor details," said Charles Dolan in an interview last night with Newsday. The Times reports that Charles and James Dolan were in Chicago two weeks ago talking to Sam Zell, and Cablevision bankers and lawyers are there now hashing out the final terms of the deal.  read more »

Arianna Huffington made The New York Times on Friday morning for a blog post she wrote on her Web site about John McCain. In that post Ms. Huffington wrote that a few years back McCain told her at a dinner party that he did not vote for George W. Bush in 2000. This made McCain look like a hypocrite, and his campaign responded by calling Ms. Huffington “a flake and a poser and an attention-seeking diva.”  read more »

Two nights ago, Rupert Murdoch told The Observer that he went "a little too far" by declaring that his purchase of Newsday was a certainty, which he boldly told reporters and investors earlier in the week. This afternoon, he has withdrawn his offer.  read more »

Rupert Murdoch said he "absolutely" trusts Sam Zell to sell him Newsday—after all, Mr. Zell is a man of his word, right?

"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. I trust Mr. Zell absolutely. He's famous for being a man of his word. We think everything's in hand."  read more »

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Our Politicker colleague Jason Horowitz overheard an amusing thing in this morning's Clinton Conference call with Howard Wolfson.  read more »

It's officially a horse-race for the tabloid in a tutu.  read more »

And how was your day? If you're a media critic or reporter, it was anything but slow.

Starting last night when "Time Reporters" broke the news that Wall Street Journal managing editor Marcus Brauchli would be leaving the paper followed closely by The Wall Street Journal's Merissa Marr reporting Sam Zell's Tribune Co. was "closing in on an agreement to sell its Long Island newspaper Newsday" to her paper's parent company, News Corp., this was a day of constant scoops and fast (sometimes loose) seat-of-the-pants analysis.  read more »

Arthur Sulzberger, Jr., who is speaking right now at the Times Building for the paper's annual shareholders meeting, declared the newspaper is not for sale. Choire Sicha sends in this dispatch, via text:

Sulzberger: "This company is not for sale." Media reports are "ill-informed."

Newsday, which is close to being sold to Rupert Murdoch, is "our closest competitor" on the web.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Sam Zell's Newsday is close to being sold to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. for $580 million. The story is sourced to people familiar with the situation, and that both parties "have informally agreed on key aspects, including the price, structure and governance."  read more »

Sam Zell sent out a company-wide email last night, and reemphasized, in slightly different words, that there are people interested in Newsday. While speaking about the "disposition front," he says there have been "specific inquiries" about Newsday. Here's the entire memo:

Lender Call Recap  read more »

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Since Sam Zell acknowledged for the first time today that there are outside parties asking about Newsday, the paper's publisher, Tim Knight, was forced to acknowledge it as well. He has just sent a memo out to his staff, explaining that he knows "this creates uncertainty." The memo is revealing since it seems to show that Mr. Knight knows as much as we know: not much.  read more »

Sam Zell was asked about the potential sale of Newsday in a conference call with investors, and said there's an interest among outsiders but no decision has been made yet.

"As we previously acknowledged, we have been approached by a number of parties that have a keen interest," he said, when in fact it's the first time he's acknowledged this publicly. "We have reached no conclusions with anybody at this juncture. And we’re discussing if that does or does not make sense for us and the Tribune Company going forward."  read more »

Word was spreading last week that Sam Zell was in deep danger of credit default, but there might be an out (in fact, it's an out that Mr. Zell seems to already have begun working on). Reuters is reporting:  read more »

According to Richard Pérez-Peña, people who have been awed and amused by Sam Zell's dirty mouth have been "twittering" and "tut-tutting" about more serious matters lately. In today's Times, he writes that Mr. Zell is in danger of falling into credit default.  read more »

It doesn't say much either way, but here's Rupert Murdoch at Georgetown today speaking about Newsday: "I don't know if we'll get it, somebody else might get it." [Fishbowl DC]

The ever-reliable Peter Slatin is reporting today that Mort Zuckerman is the "last man standing" in the push to buy the G.M. Building on Fifth Avenue. The potential sale price? $2.9 billion.  read more »

Welcome to Newsday's new City Hall reporter, Michael Frazier, who just set up shop, for the time being, in Room 4A. He’s replacing Karla Schuster (pictured above talking to Frazier at a press conference this morning) who heads back to Melville to cover the Long Island scene.

Frazier worked for the Associated Press in their Arkansas office back in the day, came to Newsday to cover crime and, lucky for him, here he is.

Other key details: he owns a fancy Sony camcorder (high definition, 4.0 mega pixels!) and is an avid cyclist.

Despite a rumor floating around Newsday headquarters on Friday that Rupert Murdoch had purchased the paper, Mort Zuckerman is still in the running.

Newsday reported on Saturday that Mr. Zuckerman is "aggressively pursuing" the paper and quotes an unnamed former executive at the paper who said he's been looking at it for a long time.

Ante up!

Now suddenly everyone is interested in Newsday. The New York Times is reporting that a Manhattan media blockbuster trio is "in discussions" to buy the Melville-based newspaper: Rupert Murdoch, James Dolan and Mort Zuckerman. Sam Zell decides who's the winner.

It sets up a satisfying auction between Mr. Murdoch (Post-owner) and Mr. Zuckerman (Daily News-owner) and Mr. Dolan, who owns MSG, the Knicks, Rangers and Cablevision.  read more »

Crain's is reporitng that Mr. Murdoch has put in a bid to buy Newsday. The sourcing in the Crain's piece is odd--it is "now believed" that he's done this according to "one newspaper industry insider"--but the speculation is convincing.  read more »

Perhaps it's an attempt to soften the blow of the impending newsroom cuts at Newsday. But the paper has organized a meeting for next week that showcases careers you can enter after journalism. For example, you can be a social worker. Here's the (sobering) memo:

Yes, There Is Life After Newsday
Tuesday, 11 AM to 12:15 PM, Newsday auditorium  read more »

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At 4 p.m. today Newsday chief editor John Mancini is meeting with reporters and staffers to discuss job cuts at the paper. This will be his second meeting; the first one was on Friday.

We just got an account of what happened on Friday from a reporter who was present:  read more »

It's been a miserable day on Long Island.

"It’s definitely more than everybody expected," said Zachary Dowdy, a reporter and representative to the Local 406 that represents Newsday employees, of the job cuts announced today at the Long Island daily.

A spokeswoman told us earlier that out of 120 employees, 25 newsroom jobs would be lost. But a senior newsroom source has told us that the number will actually be bigger: Somewhere closer to 30 to 40 jobs will be cut (25 of those will be unionized employees).  read more »

Well! While I was away at an interview for a couple of hours this afternoon, everything at Newsday blew up. All in all, 120 employees are losing a job, and the cuts start today (we do not have a clear indication of how many jobs in the newsroom will be lost). I'll have updates as they come in, but the mood over there is apparently bleak--significantly worse than it was earlier this week when everyone was expecting these cuts as we reported this week.  read more »

Before Sam Zell gets down to the dirty business of letting go some Newsday employees, he went down to the Washington bureau of the Tribune Company. While there, he managed to upset just about everyone.  read more »

It’s been a jittery two weeks in Melville.

Over the next week, Newsday reporters and editors are expecting an announcement about job cuts. Even veterans of the Vlad the Impaler year of 1995, in which Times Mirror ordered the elimination of 800 jobs from a payroll of 3,200, contemplate the coming week with dread.

“To be honest with you, it’s really grim here,” said James Bernstein, a business reporter and 30-year-veteran.  read more »

A Newsday insider tells Media Mob that a reporter who received a new BlackBerry from the paper today had a special gift inside: a saved picture of a smiling Sam Zell saved on it. Another Newsday reporter said that a lot of the reporting staff is expecting to get new BlackBerry curves to replace "the crappy LGs we all had before." Expect a cute picture of your wrinkly boss waiting for you.

Romenesko today links to an Editor & Publisher item that proudly hails newsday.com's traffic surge in December.  read more »

On Long Island, Newsday reporters and editors are listening to Sam Zell speak to a packed auditorium--so packed that lots of Newsday folks are spilling over into a sideroom to watch a live telecast of the event. According to a person inside the room--who is BlackBerrying Media Mob with updates--Mr. Zell is wearing a striped button-down shirt without a tie.  read more »

Sam Zell is taking a New York tour today, and it concludes in Melville where he's taking a tour of Newsday offices. At 3:30 this afternoon, Mr. Zell will conduct a "Town Hall" meeting with reporters and editors in the Pinelawn auditorium. Randy Michaels, Mr. Zell's partner, will be by his side and the meeting is schedule to last two hours.

Here is his entire schedule today, as given to Media Mob by a Newsday insider:

9-10:00am: amNew York

10:30-11:30: WPIX

12:00-1:00 2 Park Avenue

3:30-5:30: Newsday  read more »

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One of the quiet mysteries over the last week is why exactly newsday.com became (1) the fifth-most read news web site in the country last month and (2) why unique visitors increased by 182 percent in November 2007 versus November 2006. It was ranked higher than the New York Post and the LA Times. Did everyone is Syosset and Manhasset finally get cable modems?  read more »