• by David Goetzl , February 9, 2007

There is one less buyer for the Tribune Co. News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch all but ruled out making a bid for any portion of the company, which is auctioning off its newspaper and TV station assets. The executive said he only had an interest in New York newspaper Newsday, and any purported Tribune deal is not "going to happen."

Murdoch, speaking at a media conference in New York, said he would have joined the Chandler family in bidding for the Chicago-based company, but only if a joint operating agreement was launched with his company's New York Post and Newsday, which he doubted could be executed.

It could be a negotiating ploy, however, since his comments came a day after he expressed interest in pursuing some joint transaction with the Chandlers that could lead to the JOA.

A so-called JOA could save costs through combining back-office and printing operations and some sales, although the editorial sides would continue to compete.

Murdoch, whose company owns leading newspapers in Australia and the UK, was cool to the business in general, noting that young readers prefer the Internet. "They're very vulnerable," he said. "We have to learn to look at them differently."

As a result, in regard to purchasing the full Tribune newspaper portfolio of 11 papers, he said, "It scares me."

Still, he said a JOA with Newsday could have worked. "We thought whatever happened over the next five years, that could be a very good operation."

Despite the potentially dour, slow-growth future of the newspaper business, Murdoch said News Corp. is not pondering any sale of its papers.

But along with the apparently nixed Tribune bid, he cast doubt on whether News Corp. might be interested in snapping up Dow Jones, with its flagship Wall Street Journal. "I'm cooling on it," he said, doubting that DJ would sell it, and his shareholders would greenlight it.