Earlier this week, it seemed all but certain that the Tribune Company would sell Long Island newspaper Newsday to the News Corporation. But given News Corp.'s ownership of the Post and Wall Street Journal, not to mention two NYC area TV stations (WNYW and WWOR), criticism of the potential deal has given Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman an argument why he's better suited to buy the paper.

Zuckerman matched News Corp's $580 million bid and feels, per the NY Times, "his bid is more attractive because it does not have the potential to fall into regulatory limbo." And there's probably nothing better that Zuckerman would like than being able to steal a media asset from News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, but apparently Zuckerman's team was surprised that News Corp was so "close" to a deal.

Both media moguls think combining Newsday's operations with the Post or Daily News would create savings. Which means there's a third bidder with a newspaper operation possibly circling Newsday: The Observer with Cablevision.