New York Daily News up for grabs as billionaire Mort Zuckerman looks to sell

Billionaire property tycoon Mort Zuckerman is trying to sell the New York Daily News, the tabloid newspaper he has owned since 1993.

Zuckerman, who controls a $2.6bn real estate empire across Boston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, told Daily News staff that he had hired investment bank Lazard to drum up interest from other billionaires keen to buy the historic newspaper that traces its roots back to 1919.

In a memo to staff, Zuckerman said: “A few weeks ago, we were approached about our potential interest in selling the Daily News. Although there were no immediate plans to consider a sale, we thought it would be prudent to explore the possibility and talk to potential buyers and/or investors. To help us with the process, I have retained Lazard, a leading financial advisory firm.

“I have not come to this decision easily. But I believe the immense hard work in turning the business around in an extremely challenging period for the industry, has put the Daily News in as strong a position than it has ever been, particularly online.”

Zuckerman did not mention the identity of any potential buyers, and his company did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp empire owns rival tabloid the New York Post and the Wall Street Journal, has been linked to the Daily News in the past. “The discussions are not about if, they’re about when,” a source told Capital New York in October. “This is something that’s been talked about for a long time, but it’s gathered an awful lot of speed lately.”

News Corp said it had no comment. The Daily News is edited by Colin Myler, who was editor of Murdoch’s News of the World until it closed in 2012 in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

The Daily News was once New York’s biggest daily newspaper, with a circulation of more than 2m in the 1940s. But, its circulation dropped to an average of 327,551 in the last three months of 2014.

The paper’s office on 42nd Street in Manhattan doubled as the office of the Daily Planet in the 1978 Superman movie.

Zuckerman bought the Daily News for $36m in 1992 outbidding Conrad Black, the former owner of the Daily Telegraph, who was convicted of fraud in 2007.