Cablevison and Newsday off to a rousing start!

Media: Now this is how you make your new employees happy to work for you after a sale.

On the afternoon of May 10, when word got out that Rupert Murdoch was dropping his bid to buy Newsday, the writing was on the wall: For a likely $650 million, the odd-couple father-and-son team of Chuck and Jim Dolan would be the paper’s new owners.

So on May 11, Newsday’s business desk dispatched reporter Ellen Yan to the Dolans’ compound in Oyster Bay Cove to try to buttonhole the new owners for a story.

She looked for their house, having bought a flower in case it, in turn, might buy a little goodwill—it was Mother’s Day, after all!

But when she couldn’t find the house of her newspaper’s new owner, she had to start working the phones.

Pay dirt! She scored an interview with the notoriously press-shy Charles Dolan.

He didn’t give up much: There were still “minor details” to be hashed out before his deal to buy the newspaper could officially close.

By the time the story appeared on the Newsday Web site that evening, a press release had been put together, and was sent out at 8:01 a.m., May 12, officially announcing the sale.

Only a few hours after the print editions hit newsstands, the quote Ms. Yan got was rendered useless.

To make matters worse, the business desk got in trouble from the new owners for assigning the piece, according to several people at the newspaper.

Cablevision spokesman Charles Schueler spoke with reporter Mark Harrington, formerly the Cablevision beat reporter who was working this story, and business editor Eli Reyes and “screamed at them” and “was very pissed off” for sending a reporter to look for their house, and for dropping phone calls to the Dolans, according to several staffers (though Mr. Schueler disputes this account—he said he didn’t scream).

But to many on the Newsday staff, the attempt by the paper to introduce itself to the Dolans the best way it knows how was pretty roundly rebuffed, and that didn’t look good.

“It’s made for an interesting start,” said one staffer.

“They’re the only owners who could make you wish for Murdoch,” said another.

I would polish up the resume and start eating/travel less to save money.