News Slump! Murdoch Empire Casts Evil Eye at Tabloid Rival?

When the summer news slump hits medialand and there is no Montauk Monster to fill post quotas (and the Sotomayor hearings are not quite the MJ circus C-SPAN hopes them to be) nothing quite fits the bill like speculation on the evil machinations of Rupert Murdoch.

The latest? Rupe is out the buy the New York Daily News! The speculator in this case is upstate New York-based media appraiser Kevin Kamen who had this to say to Jeff Bercovici:

“I believe that’s something that’s being looked at very seriously, although very quietly” inside News Corp., Kamen tells DailyFinance. “Obviously, I can’t say it’s definitely happening, but I think it’s being considered by Murdoch for sure. Nobody should be surprised, although everyone will be.”

Kamen, who says the purchase will happen before the end of the year, has gleaned this tip from confidential sources. He also says it is the next logical step to follow Murdoch’s more recent purchases of the Brooklyn Paper and the TimesLedger and Courier-Life newspaper groups. Sound fishy?

Ever since Murdoch shocked the heck out of just about everyone by buying the Wall St. Journal in 2007 rumors have persisted that he is also out to get the embattled New York Times (or Twitter, or even Facebook back in the day — basically the hot property du jour). But the NYDN? The Post and the Daily News have battled it out at the newsstands for years, though neither makes a great profit (the Post bleeds money actually, lately the NYDN drips).

Bercovici points out that things got so tough for both papers recently that they considered merging business operations. New York City tabloids may end up lasting longer than local newspapers nationwide merely by dint of of the fact New Yorker’s take the (internet-free) subway to work, but one imagines in this day and age one struggling tabloid on the books is enough!

Also? NYDN publisher Mort Zuckerman says fat chance! “The Daily News is not for sale, has never been for sale, and will not be for sale.” But it certainly makes for fun copy.