NEW YORK – Newspaper owner and noted Twitter user Rupert Murdoch is hearing that the Los Angeles Times newspaper is about to change hands.
There was no immediate confirmation of Murdoch’s tweet. A Tribune spokesman declined to comment.
Murdoch’s “strong word” matches industry speculation about a pending transaction involving the Tribune and is sure to trigger even more speculation about it.
Murdoch was said to be interested in buying the Los Angeles Times two years ago. And he’s far from the only one who has eyeballed the paper over the years.
At the end of the summer Broad, the billionaire philanthropist Murdoch mentioned in his tweet, inquired about the Times and its sister paper the San Diego Union-Tribune.
The Tribune board rebuffed Broad back then. The company has repeatedly objected to business proposals that would break up its chain of papers — from The Baltimore Sun on the East Coast to the The Chicago Tribune to The Times out West.
Times publisher Austin Beutner, who is supportive of a breakup and a return to local ownership for the newspaper, was subsequently fired by Tribune CEO Jack Griffin. Beutner is now a publisher in waiting. Broad is widely believed to be preparing another offer for the Times, in concert with a number of other civic leaders in southern California.
Beutner told CNN last month, “I’m not involved directly in any talks,” but he didn’t deny knowledge of their existence.
One scenario — which Murdoch suggested on Friday — would split Tribune into two pieces, with Broad and company taking the California papers and another owner taking the midwest and East Coast papers.
Tribune stock surged earlier this week. The stock purchases could have been related to a painful round of corporate cost-cutting, but there is also speculation in the Times newsroom that it is related to an imminent sale.
According to Los Angeles Business Journal reporter Daina Beth Solomon, Broad also declined to comment after Murdoch tweeted about the potential transaction.
