Newsday’s Fight With Trump Ally Bruce Blakeman Heads to Court

When Newsday was founded, Long Island was a “bunch of small towns separated by trees,” according to Bob Keeler, a retired Newsday reporter who wrote a book about the paper. The newspaper, Mr. Keeler said, helped connect residents of Long Island to their communities and government.

“It was an important institution in giving Long Island an identity,” Mr. Keeler said.

But the reach of the outlet, now owned by Patrick Dolan, the son of the HBO founder Charles F. Dolan, is now largely restricted to Long Island. It has faced a difficult transition to online subscriptions, like most newspapers.

Today, Newsday employs around 100 reporters in Nassau County who cover the economy, politics, food and more. In an eight-month period last year, its total weekly print and digital readership in the county was more than 400,000, according to the complaint.

Seth Koslow, a Democratic member of the Nassau County Legislature, said that he opposed making The Post the county’s official newspaper, because of Newsday’s longstanding ties to Long Island. Mr. Koslow, who is running against Mr. Blakeman in this year’s election, called the move “good for Bruce Blakeman and not for Nassau County.”

“Politicians don’t get to choose their watchdogs,” Mr. Koslow said in an interview.

Newsday claims that Mr. Blakeman retaliated against the paper for its coverage of his efforts to bar transgender athletes from participating in sports at county facilities. Starting in March 2024, the paper said, Mr. Blakeman’s administration ignored about 50 information requests and began removing its reporters from press mailing lists, leaving just a single journalist who was a registered Republican.