Can a former aerospace engineer who pioneered the development of satellite television save the Los Angeles Times?

Does the brash COO of the Tribune Company have any vision of where he is taking it - beyond bailing as fast as he can to stave off potential bankruptcy in the face of the $13-billion debt incurred by Sam Zell’s purchase last year?

A Long-Island-based suitor with deep pockets, but no newspaper experience, has emerged the surprise winner in the bidding war for Newsday, the Long Island tabloid put up for sale by the debt-ridden Tribune Company.

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch has agreed in principle to pay $580 million for Newsday in a deal with the Chicago-based Tribune Co. that would reshape the New York City tabloid world.

Tribune Company owner Sam Zell may be entertaining bids for Newsday, the company’s Long Island paper, amid mounting financial pressures.

Bill Gates and Pete Peterson

Bill Gates may have lost top seating on the Forbes billionaires list, but he leads Vanity Fair’s accounting of America’s 50 richest paydays.

The magazine ranked windfalls that came from big deals such as company sales, real estate transactions and stock cash-outs. Gates sold $2.5 billion in Microsoft stock last year.

The colorful Sam Zell assumed leadership of the Tribune Company yesterday, after closing an $8.2 billion deal to take the company private.

Former chairman & CEO Dennis J. FitzSimons immediately stepped down, making way for Zell to assume both titles.

Bad times for newspapers can be good times for newspaper lobbyists.

Major publishers, which often cover K Street as a hotbed of corruption, spend thousands each year to advance and protect their own interests.

Yet one issue that has fueled the Washington media lobby for years may soon disappear. Federal Communications Commission Chairman Kevin J. Martin has drafted a plan that would abolish rules forbidding companies from owning both a newspaper and broadcast outlets in the same city.

Two seasons have collided - the endless season of the presidential campaign and the shorter season of the baseball playoffs.

This means that presidential candidates have been showing up at the playoffs, most especially Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani, who was there front and center to see his beloved New York Yankees exit the playoffs in the first round.

These sporting appearances make sense. The politicos get a little TV airtime away from the coffee shops of New Hampshire and Iowa. And they associate themselves with a game that’s American as apple pie and steroids. (OK. They don’t stress the steroids.)

But there can be risks to rooting for a team, as it inevitably means rooting against another team. Giuliani have picked up some votes in New York, but the inhabitants of Red Sox Nation might not be able to forgive his connection to, in their opinions, an evil empire.