NEW YORK – Cablevision Systems Corp. plans to buy the Long Island newspaper Newsday from Tribune Co. for $650 million. The information is given by am anonymous person familiar with the confidential discussions.

If the reports are true, however, it means that Cablevision, a cable TV company, will own its first newspaper. All this will obviously support Tribune Co. which went private since last December and is currently in debt to the tune of $8.2 billion.

According to Yahoo Finance, Cablevision declined to comment on the issue.

Cablevision hasn’t commented about its interest in getting into the newspaper business, and its investors are starting to get antsy about the company’s recent appetite for acquisitions.

Analysts peppered Cablevision Chief Executive James Dolan with questions Thursday about its rationale for going after Newsday, but he declined to comment. The exchange came on a conference call to discuss the company’s latest earnings.

Cablevision has potential and owns cable channels such as Madison Square Garden, NBA’s New York Knicks, the NHL’s New York Rangers, and Radio City Music Hall. Recently it was announced that Cablevision purchased Robert Redford’s Sundance Channel for about $500 million.

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