Has Rupert Murdoch been thinking the unthinkable?

We think of Rupert Murdoch as a newspaper man who got into television. But in America he already makes more money from television. It is starting to look conceivable that could he end up not owning a British newspaper. For as this crisis unfolds he could conclude that UK newspapers just aren’t worth it anymore. He is a businessman.

When Mr Murdoch strode across the street arm around the woman he jokingly told reporters was his top priority (Rebekah Brooks) he had the air of a man who still thought he was in control. Today’s events – the spreading of the allegations beyond the News of the World into the Sunday Times and Sun newspapers – seem to change everything to the outsider. But remember it is quite likely they have not come as such a surprise to Mr Murdoch, whose son James had days ago hinted that there was worse to come. So the dramatic decision to withdraw his offer to split off Sky News and have his BSkyB takeover bid referred to the Competition Commission was deliberate and thought through.

The referral gives him time – at least six months and possibly longer. Now he has got rid of the News of the World there is less of a media plurality issue than there was before, but few people predict a referral will lead to a refusal. It doesn’t matter how much the Commissioners dislike allegations of phone hacking, blagging and corruption – that isn’t the issue they will be ruling on.

Rupert Murdoch’s only profitable newspaper here now is The Sun. As newspapers move online nobody has found a business model that really works yet. It is early days but there is no sign the iPad has been a saviour for The Times or that The Daily is the future of News Corp journalism. The idea that The Times gives him respectability seems as old fashioned now as it is patronising. Now that politicians (or at least two out of three parties) see him as toxic he won’t be enjoying quite as many invitations to Downing Street as a newspaper proprietor and the readers might take future political positions of the Sun with a dollop of salt.

So there has to be a strong argument that says sell or close (if you feel a little angry about it all) the newspapers and concentrate on television, movies and the internet. That seems much more in tune with the experience of the current Murdoch heir James who cut his teeth on Star TV in Asia. Should he fall by the wayside Elizabeth Murdoch is definitely a TV person, and while Lachlan used to work in newspapers he is now one of the key figures at Australia’s Network Ten. All of them are essentially now TV people. The unthinkable is starting to make sense.

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