Murdoch: ‘I trust Zell absolutely’

Confident Zell is “a man of his word,” Murdoch expects to close his deal to buy Newsday in about a week. The deal is in a "pretty advanced stage," he said. He told anaylsts today that he doesn't think Cablevision will prevail in it's $650 million bid to take Newsday off Tribune's hands.

“We see Newsday continuing to be a very important local newspaper covering two of the greatest counties in America and wealthiest counties in America and the Post covering basically the City of New York, a paper with a very different character,” Murdoch said. “We're not putting them to be one newspaper. But there are great savings in printing and distribution and normal back office (functions). There's a lot we can do together and we'll pursue that. We're very optimistic for both papers. We're hoping to wrap it up within the next week and I dont mean the end of next week, I mean within the next seven days. It takes two to agree, but we're at a pretty advanced stage.”

The unions that represent workers at the New York Post and Newsday will be ready to help him with plans for a “super printing plant”.