Yesterday afternoon, Jeff Bercovici over at DailyFinance.com quoted a media expert who predicted that Rupert Murdoch would buy the New York Daily News before the end of 2009. Kevin Kamen, a media appraiser, thinks that “it’s being considered by Murdoch for sure.” “Nobody should be surprised,” he says, attributing his insight to confidential sources. “Although everyone will be.” The Daily News’ owner, Mort Zuckerman, told Bercovici that the idea was “total fiction,” and that “the Daily News is not for sale, has never been for sale, and will not be for sale.” Zuckerman and Murdoch are longstanding rivals, but last summer we heard rumbles of a plan to combine printing operations between the Daily News and Rupert’s papers like the Post and Wall Street Journal. And today, Mort Zuckerman wrote an editorial for the Journal regarding unemployment length in the United States. Normally, Zuckerman’s editorials occupy space in his own publications, the Daily News and U.S. News. It seems extremely implausible on its face that Zuckerman would sell his paper to a man like Murdoch. But the timing of this most recent collaboration is certainly noteworthy — and an excellent excuse to run the above incredible photo again.
Prediction: Murdoch buys NY Daily News [Daily Finance]
