Murdoch Says He Thought About Buying Times

Since Rupert Murdoch closed the deal to acquire Dow Jones, and with it The Wall Street Journal, he's had no shortage of things to say about the weaknesses of The Journal's biggest competitor, The New York Times. So it's perhaps surprising to learn that he told an Australian paper he'd "thought about" buying The Times. In typical Murdochian fashion, the revelation appears as a kind of casual, off-the-cuff remark in the course of a longer interview.

Newsweek sees the comment as a move by Mr. Murdoch to rattle Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger. The magazine, citing a source at The Times, reports that after winning control of the Journal, Mr. Murdoch sent Mr. Sulzberger a note that read "Let the war begin."

Was this the first shot? Guess we'll find out.