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Billionaire press baron Mortimer Zuckerman, the Montreal-born former rival of Conrad Black, says he is being encouraged to run for New York mayor — by the man who holds the title.

“I would love to be in that job,” said Mr. Zuckerman in a New York Times article Monday hinting that current Mayor Michael Bloomberg — a fellow billionaire media magnate — was considering the 75-year-old as a potential successor.

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Mr. Zuckerman told the paper that Mr. Bloomberg had recently talked to him about a possible run in the November election, adding that he was “not the only person.”

“A lot of people have talked to me about that possibility,” he said.

“If I could be appointed, I’d probably be serious about it.”

The son of Russian immigrant parents and the grandson of an Orthodox rabbi, Mr. Zuckerman was raised in a middle-class Jewish home in Montreal’s Outremont neighbourhood.

Moving to the United States in 1961, Mr. Zuckerman first made his name in the Boston real estate market before making his foray into publishing with the 1980 purchase of The Atlantic Monthly.