Real estate developer wants to buy Newsday

Posted by Leah McBride Mensching on March 19, 2010 at 11:02 AM

One of Long Island's largest landowners has written a letter of interest in buying the Newsday's print and online properties to Charles Dolan, chairman of Cablevision Systems Corp., which owns Newsday. Robert Toussie sent the letter to Dolan March 10.

Toussie told the Wall Street Journal the letter is "simply a function of price and certified statements," but that he has not heard back from Dolan. A spokesman for Cablevision told the WSJ that "Newsday is not for sale." Newsday is the largest newspaper on Long Island.

Newsday put its Web site behind a paywall at the end of October 2009, and by January just 35 people had signed up for an online subscription.

This is likely due to the fact that print subscribers get free access to the site, as does anyone who has Optimum Cable television, which is owned Cablevision. About 75 percent of Long Island's residents have either Optimum Cable or a subscription. According to Nielsen figures, traffic in that time also decreased by half.