The New York Post's Media Ink columnist Keith Kelly, who has chronicled the controversy surrounding New York Times Business Editor Larry Ingrassia's quest for a book on the Dow Jones takeover, reports today that it will not happen. From The Post:

''The book deal, originally to be written by both Ingrassia and Times columnist Joe Nocera, had been in trouble almost from the start, and stoked resentment among the Times' rank-and-file, who felt Ingrassia might be swiping story sources from the reporters covering the merger.

'''It wasn't a question of jealousy [about a possible book deal], it was a question of propriety,' said one insider at the Times.''

Questions of a conflict of interest involved Ingrassia's brother, Paul, a Dow Jones & Company, Inc. Vice President who very publicly and very recently left the company in protest at Murdoch's ownership. Also, Kelly noted in a precious Media Ink column that The Times newsroom was not happy about an editor negotiating an outside business deal with Nocera, ''someone who reports directly to (Ingrassia) in his day job.'' Larry Ingrassia's defenders argued that his years as a staffer at the Wall Street Journal would have given the would-be book that wasn't superb sourcing.