The Press: Short Takes

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> When she refused to tell a Pasco County, Fla., judge where she got information for a story on a grand-jury proceeding, St. Petersburg Times Reporter Lucy Ware Morgan was sentenced to five months in jail (TIME, Nov. 26). The Times's lawyers then appealed, arguing, among other things, that Mrs. Morgan's refusal to name sources might be considered an act of contempt only if she balked before the grand jury in question. Quick to oblige, State Attorney James T. Russell hauled Mrs. Morgan before the grand jury and again demanded her sources. She again declined but later had a partial change of heart. Last week she filed an affidavit naming "one of several" sources for her story: State Attorney James T. Russell. Mrs. Morgan claimed that Russell, who had subpoenaed her in the first place, had effectively "waived any right to confidentiality" through his persistent attempts to make her name names. Russell had no comment, but Mrs. Morgan's blockbuster has not extricated her from trouble. Still facing the sentence imposed by the judge, she now risks an additional contempt citation for refusing to identify all her sources before the grand jury.

> Where might the owner of the British weekly News of the World (circ. 6,000,000), the daily London Sun (circ. 2,600,000) and the Sydney Sunday Telegraph (circ. 622,000) surface next? Why San Antonio, naturally. Later this month Publishing Baron Rupert Murdoch, 42, will complete his $18 million purchase of the San Antonio morning Express (circ. 84,000) and evening News (circ. 63,000), sister dailies owned by Harte-Hanks Newspapers Inc. The choice of locale might seem odd for the ambitious Australian, who has specialized in reviving faltering papers with heavy doses of crime coverage, cheesecake and scandal. But Murdoch relishes competition, and San Antonio offers him a rousing circulation battle with the Light, a Hearst-owned afternoon daily. Wary Light officials have already begun huffing about "foreign ownership" in their city, despite Murdoch's pledge to "keep those newspapers steadfastly American." Whatever the outcome, Murdoch's San Antonio properties will give him a toehold in the U.S. that he plans to enlarge soon in a major way with the founding of a national weekly tabloid paper. Slated for introduction in the Northeast in February, Murdoch's National Star will, he promises, "fall somewhere between TIME and the National Enquirer in content and approach." He obviously wants a good deal of latitude in which to navigate.