U.S. cable television group Cablevision announced it is buying New York-based Newsday for US$650 million, beating out Rupert Murdoch's bid of $580 million, BBC News reported Monday.

Mort Zuckerman, owner of the New York Daily News, also bid $580.

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The E.W. Scripps Co. board has approved a plan to separate its media company into two public companies, to begin July 1, the Associated Press reported Friday.

Completion of the plan must still meet government regulatory approval.

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As News Corporation Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch gave thanks to strength in his Australian businesses Thursday, he also kept an eye trained on New York newspaper Newsday.

News Corp. is sticking with its US$580 million bid for Newsday, the Chicago Tribune reported Thursday.

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News Media Corp. has bought the Arizona Silver Belt from GateHouse Media for an undisclosed amount, Editor & Publisher reported Tuesday.

“We did not see the Arizona operation as a good strategic or geographic fit and felt we could redeploy the capital more effectively elsewhere,” Michael Reed, GateHouse CEO said in a statement.

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Microsoft Corp. on Saturday withdraw its US$42 billion takeover offer for Yahoo!, after the companies failed to agree on how much the Internet firm was worth, the Los Angeles Times reported.

The unexpected breakdown came shortly after their chief executives met in Seattle one day earlier. The companies had finally engaged in talks since Microsoft said it would raise billions more for the deal in January.

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Media conglomerate Cox Enterprises Inc., which foresees shrinking newspaper and television audiences and plans to keep an eye on the online market, spent US$300 million to buy a startup, the Associated Press reported.

The deal with Adify Corp., announced Tuesday, represents the latest evolution for the media company, which began over a century ago with one newspaper in Ohio, and later expanded to new areas including radio, television and cable systems in the United States.

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Should his tentative deal to buy Newsday from the Tribune Company, Rupert Murdoch will likely “pose the first significant challenge” to the Federal Communications Commissions' recently adopted media ownership rule, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

If the purchase goes through, Newsday will be Murdoch's third New York newspaper.

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The east Oregonian Publishing Co. said it will buy the twice-weekly Hermiston (Ore.) Herald from Western Communications Inc., Editor & Publisher reported Wednesday.

The purchase is expected to close by May 1. Terms were not disclosed.

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Jerry Yang, the co-founder of Yahoo!, announced Tuesday that the company may still recommend a hostile takeover from Microsoft, after admitting that it had already spent US$14 million on advisers, including Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers, to fight the approach, the Times Online reported Wednesday.

With a nine percent raise in revenues for the first quarter to $1.82 billion, the company remained “open to any and all alternatives including a sale to Microsoft,” according to Yang.

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Fairfax Media is looking to buy a stake in national Indian newspaper The Hindu, an English-language daily, The Australian has reported Thursday.

The Australian cited reports by weekly magazine Business India and business daily Mint, both of which reported Fairfax was discussing the transaction with Kasturi & Sons, owners of The Hindu.

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U.S. billionaire Sheldon Adelson is once again seeking to buy Israeli daily Ma'ariv, Newspaper Innovation reported Monday.

Adelson has tried to buy the newspaper twice in the last two years, and also owns Israeli free daily Israel today, and did own free newspaper Israeli, which closed in 2007.

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Independent News & Media Plc. Chief Executive Anthony O’Reilly has raised his stake in the company to about 27.10 percent of the company, by buying 1 million shares at 2.12 euros, Thomson Financial reported Thursday.

He now holds 225.19 million shares.

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Mergers and acquisitions still thrive in the first quarter, even though the economy is shaky, according to the latest data from the investment bank Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc.

There were 202 transactions in total in the first three months of 2008, with the value totaled $13.4 billion. This marks a five-percent increase of total dollar value from the same period in 2007, while the number of transactions slid by two percent.

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Jared Kushner, owner of the weekly New York Observer, is among those contemplating buying or partnering with Newsday, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

Kushner, son of real-estate developer Charles Kushner, declined to comment on the report, which was based on “a person familiar with the situation,” according to the article.

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Trinity Mirror Plc has bought UK Web design and development consultancy agency Rippleffect Studio in an effort to branch out revenue streams and increase interest in sport and leisure media, the UK Association of Online Publishers (AOP) reported Wednesday.

Trinity Mirror bought Rippleffect for an initial £3.2 million, plus an additional £2.6 million, contingent on success over the upcoming three years, according to journalism.co.uk.

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