As expected, well, as expected since Rupert Murdoch pulled out, Newsday has been sold to Cablevision for $650m (£332m). The deal is interesting for several reasons...
it confirms that the seller, Tribune, is in real trouble (see Philip Stone's analysis here). It proves that Murdoch will not pay over the odds and implies that he was not willing to face increasing political pressure about building a monopoly position in New York. It was galling for another loser, Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News, because it would have enabled him to cut his overheads (as it would have done Murdoch's).
But it also raises fundamental questions about what constitutes a regional monopoly. Cablevision, the fifth largest cable TV provider in the States, now owns virtually every media outlet on Long Island, including a TV news channel.
While boasting that it will now be able to offer advertisers a choice of its platforms - print, internet and TV - it disingenuously overlooks the fact that there is no possibility of choosing another company.
