NY Times picks up Breakingviews column

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The New York Times Co's flagship newspaper plans to start running a daily business opinion column provided by Breakingviews.com, a week after The Wall Street Journal dropped it to concentrate on its own Heard on the Street column.

The column will run daily in the Times as well as the International Herald Tribune, which New York Times Co owns and calls its global edition, Breakingviews founder Hugo Dixon told Reuters in an interview.

The column will begin running in the Times and Herald Tribune next week, Dixon said.

Earlier on Wednesday, Dixon said that The Telegraph Media Group will publish Breakingviews commentary in the Daily Telegraph newspaper in Britain as well as on the paper's website.

News Corp's Wall Street Journal had a contract to run Breakingviews until 2009, but wanted to get out of the contract early and focus on its own business column, Dixon said in June. It stopped running Breakingviews last week.

The Journal retains a 6 percent stake in Breakingviews, Dixon said. A Journal spokesman had no immediate comment.

Breakingviews is one of several business opinion columns that is vying to provide readers with concise analysis on complex financial developments.

The Journal relaunched last week with a new team of Journal and Dow Jones writers, while its chief rival -- Pearson Plc's Financial Times -- has been building up the team for its Lex business opinion column.

(Reporting by Robert MacMillan)