The FCC declined to comment to the Press on hypothetical media mergers and whether any of them would require waivers because each bidder already owns outlets in the region. News Corp., the News, Cablevision and Tribune all refused comment as well. Calls seeking comment were not returned by Newsday. While the negotiations are continuing in the backrooms, a decision reportedly won’t come for several weeks, and that will likely be followed by lengthy federal reviews of the deal. Still confident at presstime, it was reported that Murdock expects to close the deal within the week.
More High Rollers
The fact that there is still time, while negotiations are ongoing, gives some observers hope that another bidder will emerge—someone with LI’s best interests at heart.
“Someone could drop out tomorrow; someone new could enter the game tomorrow. It’s far from done,” says Jaci Clement, executive director of the Bethpage-based Fair Media Council, a not-for-profit local news media watch organization. She’s floated the idea of having a local group of business leaders form a not-for-profit and bid on Newsday as a way to keep the publication in local control. “We actually have plenty of experienced nonprofit leaders who could make this idea a reality,” she says, noting that some of the Island’s largest businesses are in that category, such as universities, hospitals and credit unions.
“People don’t see the link between a healthy media market and a healthy market,” Clement says. “You need the news reporters to be scrutinizing where your tax dollars are going, how businesses are being run.”
She says she decided to bring up the idea that few have considered because the stakes are too high to allow any more media consolidation.
People working in Newsday’s newsroom say they are amenable to the idea of the kind of business model Clements proposes. Having local business leaders form a not-for-profit that would own a news outlet has worked for the Associated Press, NPR and the BBC. Newsday employees are not optimistic that such a deal will materialize.
Read It And Weep
For now, those working for Newsday are weighing their options, and while some are rooting for one bidder over another, most are just looking forward to the deal’s conclusion.
“I think people just want to get it over with,” says Zachary Dowdy, criminal justice reporter at Newsday and vice president of the editorial unit of Local 406 of the Graphic Communications Conference/International Brotherhood of Teamsters, which represents Newsday employees. “I wouldn’t call it anxiety, but kind of an eagerness,” he adds. “We’ve had a couple of transitions in a short time period, and I think we’re looking for whatever stability that these people can offer to actually be put in place.”
Talking about possible issues the editorial staff could face with each new owner, Dowdy says that Murdoch, who has been widely reported as the preferred choice by Zell, is a cause for concern. “If he’s going to spend this money for it, he would probably want something that’s more in line with his view of the world,” Dowdy says, referring to the perception that the conservative-leaning Australian-born global newspaper baron and Fox News Channel founder is controlling of his newsrooms. Others don’t think his influence would be as heavy.
“If people think it’s going to be nudies on page 3 because that’s what Murdoch did with his English papers, or if they’re expecting a New York Post East, I think they’re going to be mistaken,” says Larry Levy, executive director of Hofstra’s Center for Suburban Studies and a former Newsday editorial board member. “I would be shocked if he put his editorial page agenda on the front page of Newsday if he owned it.
“The only thing Long Island should be concerned about is whether the new owner is going to invest in the newsroom,” Levy says. “I don’t think you can continue to cut your way to prosperity. The readership is too sophisticated, too well educated and too used to a very good product.”
While some have said that the Dolan family has the reputation of a heavy-handed management style, the main concern many have with a Cablevision takeover is that the electronic communications giant is not experienced in the newspaper business.
“Cablevision themselves, they’ve got their own problems,” says Dennis Grabhorn, president of Local 406, which represents many Newsday employees and will be giving the new owner a run for its money on staff-cutting proposals. “We don’t need problems on top of problems,” he says, as he roots for Murdoch.
Not that Zuckerman is the lesser of three evils. “I heard stories from people that we have hired who said that when they worked for the Daily News, that there were stories they felt they could not write because Zuckerman would tell them—they got the impression—that they would hurt his connections in the city,” says Les Payne, a Newsday columnist, former editor of the Queens edition and former editorial board member. Payne also thinks there is “no question” that Murdoch’s influence would be clearly evident on the paper in the event of his takeover.
He is cautious to say that he is uncertain what Zuckerman would do on LI, but still thinks the prospect is worrisome. “If you have a private owner who is protective of a business interest and is aggressive enough to put pressure on news-gathering reporters, editors and photographers, then I think that could be a problem for news gathering on Long Island at Newsday.”
Each prospective owner should take warning. “The likelihood that Newsday will improve in terms of quality under any of these changes would be relatively small,” says Hofstra’s Papper of his predicted cuts. “That unfortunately is the reality because regardless of who takes over, it’s likely to shed people—and fewer people are not going to put out a better product.”
If there is any room for optimism, it’s that this is news to begin with. “The fact that there are three bidders tells you that there is a future for newspapers, that newspapers are valued,” Papper says. “And that’s the good news, and despite a lot of people talking about traditional media being dead and it being all about new media, what this does is reinforce the notion that it’s not really that simple.”
April Jimenez and Joseph Bellear contributed to this story.