Speculation that this is the year Rupert Murdoch will cross acquisition of the LA Times and Chicago Tribune off his bucket list has been quashed by the man himself.

Poynter’s Rick Edmonds had said cashed-up News Corp may be putting together a new bid for Tribune – adding the rider “I would not typically report a publishing rumor… but” – with only the timing really in question.

But in a Twitter post on July 18, Rupert Murdoch blamed outdated cross-ownership laws for his inability to go ahead: "Sorry can't buy Trib group or LA Times - cross-ownership laws from another age still in place," he Tweeted.

Following the separation from what is now Twentyfirst Century Fox, News has a $2.5 billion war chest, and was understood to have shown recent interest in the group of eight titles last year.

Following this, Tribune announced plans to split its publishing interests into a new quoted company – possibly in August – following appointment of a new chief executive.

Poynter said “various circumstances” made the deal logical for both buyer and seller. It cited a New York tax analyst who believes a sale is “plausible” once the publishing spin-off has been completed.

Since the separation of the former News Corp divisions last June, News has bought the Storyful social media business and book publisher Harlequin.

Murdoch promised “some interesting deals” in the company’s first year, and is known to covet the Los Angeles Times, of which he is a regular reader.

Tribune owns the Baltimore Sun, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, the Orlando Sentinel, the Hartford Courant, The Morning Call (in Allentown, Pennsylvania) and the Daily Press in Newport News, Virginia. In a 2012 bankruptcy filing it was valued at US$623 million, although the spin-off will take over $350 million of debt.

US federal approval of a deal – with Fox also owning local TV – may be easier since the companies’ split, but may equally require a change of government.

In our earlier report we channelled Sarah Blasko – What Rupert wants, Rupert will have. It takes a while sometimes – as it did with The (London) Times, Dow Jones and Australia’s Herald & Weekly Times – but with Murdoch now 83, the pace may (yet) be quickening. Who knows?

Peter Coleman