I notice the same day the News of The World puts up it's paywall, Murdoch's biggest tabloid in Oz the Daily Telegraph is running short exerts and exhorting readers to buy the print paper.

I reckon we are beginning to see the cracks in the wall. While he has had sucess with a paywall on the Wall Street Journal-that would be expected. The vast majority need the financial information and they can claim the cost back as a tax deduction.

Murdoch has completely fudged the figures for the UK Times even though that has a specialist target. It's been an unsuccessful experiment.

And that is why he is desperate to either destroy the BBC..one of the biggest media outlets in the world, or own it.

Print media will plummet over the next ten years and Murdoch has been his own worst enemy. He has rid himself of so many good writers they have turned to the web.

When I was at News Ltd in Oz his son Lachlan (much too nice to be a ruthless media baron) sent a circular around telling all staff to avoid using the web as it was a passing fad.

The Sun King's empire is beginning to fade.

I agree that the Murdoch print empire is ending and possibly his web empire will only succeed once it gets enough advertising. Subs are probably just there for development and then it will be opened up again with specialist content areas left for subscribers ( at least that is what I reckon he should be doing )

As for TV - SKY is currently in a boom with the HD channels due to dominate with the digital switchover - and he owns some serious football rights as well. So I cant see that part of the empire going down.

The BBC in the UK is a rival - but equally it would be a bigger rival if freed from its licence fee and PC base. The BBC still shows dodgy shows I might add and much of its output is poor. It has got many great programmes and radio stations and a very good website.

you actually describe the News Corp structure well BR.

There are large successful parts like Sky and Fox News and other sections that bleed money like a seive.

Last night I went to a hugely boring party for his local Foxtel cable network's tenth year. His son Lachlan was there at a table with young James Packer-both hopeless and very good at loosing large sums.

Murdoch spent billions setting up his Oz cable network which is wonderful if you are into re-runs of the Jetsons and the Flintstones. It will take another 20 years to show a profit.

When Rupert goes the large superannuation institutions that have invested in News Corp will move in for the kill. The company will be broken up.

Mind you, although he's 79 his mum is 101 and still going strong.

Sky in the early 90s really struggled to get hold of the football rights to the Premier League - I know trust me, as I know someone who was involved at that level (an uncle of a friend of mine). The FA and the Premier League didn't think they could do the job justice, and really wanted ITV to have it (maximising potential that sort of thing).