The Fox Corporation part of Rupert Murdoch’s empire is reported to have paid US$50 million – or maybe “significantly less” – for TMZ, the celebrity gossip masthead named for LA’s ‘thirty-mile zone’ studio precinct.

Founded in 2005 by Harvey Levin, it us understood to have more than 200 staff delivering a news website and associated TV programmes.

The seller, WarnerMedia gained control of the brand after Time Warner divested AOL – which had been a partner in the project with Telepictures – in 2009.

It is seen as a close fit with tabloids within Murdoch’s New York Post and UK-based The Sun.

The Sydney Morning Herald’s Zoe Samios says that while media reports suggested Fox Corporation had paid “about $US50 million” for the news and entertainment brand, “sources have indicated that the deal with WarnerMedia was worth significantly less”.

Fox already broadcasts TMZ's television programmes on its network affiliates. She described the deal as part of a Fox strategy to focus on programmes that require live or same-day viewing, rather than on-demand streaming video.