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Owner of New York’s Daily News, Mortimer Zuckerman, Weighs Selling It

Mortimer B. ZuckermanCredit...Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times

Mortimer B. Zuckerman, the longtime owner of The Daily News in New York, is exploring the possibility of selling the newspaper, opening a new chapter for a nearly century-old publication that has struggled amid changes buffeting the industry.

In a memorandum to the staff on Thursday, Mr. Zuckerman said that he was approached recently about selling The News, which he has owned since 1993. “Although there were no immediate plans to consider a sale, we thought it would be prudent to explore the possibility,” he wrote. To that end, he added, he has retained the financial advisory firm Lazard.

“I have not come to this decision easily,” Mr. Zuckerman, 77, said. He said he believed “the immense hard work in turning the business around in an extremely challenging period for the industry” had put the newspaper in as strong a position as it had ever been, particularly online.

A spokesman for the newspaper declined to make Mr. Zuckerman or any Daily News executives available for interviews, or to comment further on the memo. Lazard also declined to comment.

At its peak, The News had a circulation in the millions, and along with its tabloid rival, The New York Post, helped set the pulse for the city. Its provocative, colorful coverage was pored over both in lavish Manhattan apartments and the delivery trucks outside them.

But both The News and The Post have been hit hard by sharp declines in advertising, the rise of online outlets and dwindling newsstand sales across the industry. The bread and butter of the New York tabloids — gossip, sports, provocative photographs — is now available instantly and without cost to most of the city’s residents on their smartphones.

The News’s print and digital circulation was 427,452 on weekdays and 558,057 on Sundays for the six months ending in September, the most recent figures available, according to the Alliance for Audited Media. The Post had a circulation of 497,878 during the week and 454,007 on Sunday, by the same measure.

Word of a potential sale was greeted with resignation in the paper’s newsroom, said one staff member who did not want to be named discussing a delicate matter. Reporters and editors have already been strained by cutbacks as the paper tried to adapt to a changed marketplace, and recently went through another round of staff reductions.

There had long been speculation that Mr. Zuckerman, who made a fortune in real estate estimated in the billions, wanted to sell The News, or even come to a joint operating agreement with The Post, owned by Rupert Murdoch, the executive chairman of News Corporation.

The Post and The News have, in recent years, talked at length about such an agreement, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions, who declined to be named outlining confidential matters. The reason for the collapse of the talks is disputed.

As news of Mr. Zuckerman’s intentions spread, there were suggestions online that Mr. Murdoch, known to be passionate about muckraking tabloid newspapers, might even buy The News.

But two people with knowledge of internal discussions, who declined to be named because they were not permitted to reveal the information publicly, said Mr. Murdoch was not the potential buyer who had prompted Mr. Zuckerman to explore a sale. The purchase would likely raise regulatory and other issues for News Corporation.

Martin Dunn, who edited The News twice, most recently during a seven-year stint that ended in 2010, said he was initially shocked to hear that Mr. Zuckerman was exploring a sale. But he added: “Mort has always liked to have a seat at the political influence table in New York, and The Daily News had provided that. Obviously as circulations have declined over the years, that influence has declined too.”

A correction was made on 
Feb. 26, 2015

An earlier version of this article misstated the time frame for the circulation figures for the Daily News and The Post. They represented the period ending September 2013, not 2014. The figures now cited in the article cover the six months ending September 2014.

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A version of this article appears in print on  , Section A, Page 20 of the New York edition with the headline: Owner of The Daily News Says He Is Weighing a Sale of the Tabloid. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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