News Corp. offers similar market coverage in England, where Murdoch's titles include The Times of London and The Sun, a tabloid best known for shocking delicate Yankee sensibilities with oh-so-newsworthy photos of topless women.

Murdoch paid about $5 billion for Dow Jones Co. because he wanted the Wall Street Journal. The asset, acquired before the recession gored advertising, generated about $100 million in operating income last year, suggesting that Murdoch overpaid.

But the paper has both cachet and clout. What some call "the bible of capitalism" has maintained a paid circulation of about 2 million, far outpacing general circulation newspapers that continue to see the number of subscribers dwindle. Better yet, some Journal subscribers take only the online version, making it one of the few newspapers to successfully charge for online content.

Murdoch has attempted to broaden the paper's appeal by adding sports coverage, a feature-heavy weekend edition and more general news on the first page. Layoffs at the Journal have been minimal compared with the bloodbaths at other newspaper companies.

News Corp. recently took a $3 billion write-down on its newspaper unit, and the company's stock is off about two-thirds in the last year. News Corp. is the world's No. 3 media conglomerate, trailing Time Warner (TWX) and Disney (DIS), and is therefore in far better shape than general-circulation newspaper companies, including the New York Times, which hopes to raise as much as $225 million by selling a portion of its new 52-story skyscraper and leasing back the newspaper's office space.

If newspapers have a future as specialized publications for targeted audiences, Murdoch may have made the right moves with his stable of lofty publications and zippy tabloids with winning headlines such as "Headless Body In Topless Bar."

The great unknown: If Murdoch's newspapers consistently make money when the economy rebounds, will the profits be enough to satisfy shareholders? The answer will play out against a decimated industry that's all-but-certain to see some existing newspapers -- perhaps the Post-Intelligencer in Seattle and the Rocky Mountain News in Denver -- disappear.

Against such carnage, the answer just might be "yes."