Even the mighty Rupert Murdoch, the Australian turned American media tycoon, can't escape the recession. His company News Corporation has just posted a $6.4bn quarterly loss as ad revenue declines and the company has decided to write down the value of its TV channels and Dow Jones, the publisher of the Wall Street Journal which it bought for $5.6bn last year. There's a bitter wind blowing through the media just now and Murdoch added a few knots to it when he remarked that News Corp. was going to cut back so it would emerge stronger when the economy bucks up (if it ever does). For all his critics Murdoch, whose next major anniversary is 80, has been a consistent champion of the press, losing unconscionable amounts on The Times which he bought two decades ago. Hacks across the empire are worried that when he eventually steps down the new regime, most likely son James who now runs the UK newspapers, will be less enamoured of this particular 'old' medium. Particularly exposed in the UK is his free paper thelondonpaper which has proved something of an Attila the Hun for the whole London market, losing a packet on its own and wiping out revenues at the paid-for Evening Standard which has just been bought by former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev. Lebedev is now promising to start giving away the Standard in certain locations, which will produce yet more red ink. Might cutting thelondonpaper be one of the wheezes Murdoch has in mind?