RUPERT MURDOCH'S $5bn bid for Dow Jones, publishers of the Wall Street Journal and a brand synonymous with American business, has sent panic and confusion running through the US media. Not least because, when it was followed on Friday with with news that the news service Reuters had been approached by an unnamed prospective buyer, the people who report market-moving information were suddenly, like it or not, moving markets themselves.

Rival news service Bloomberg had to begin each piece of its coverage with the disclaimer that it was a competitor to the two companies in play. The news of the Murdoch bid was itself broken on CNBC, the cable business news channel which has a deep strategic alliance with Dow Jones and features reporters from the Wall Street Journal as its on-air contributors. Those same reporters, it was assumed, would be marched across town to contribute to a soonto-be launched Fox Business News cable channel.

Other observers saw the move as the logical next step for Murdoch's multimedia ambitions, with plans to integrate content across its print, broadcast and online properties.

The WSJ's online operations have been pro"table where the print edition has struggled. But observers say that, with a pro"t margin of just 3% and a headcount that never suffered the dramatic cost-cutting reductions seen at many other media outlets after the collapse of the dotcom bubble in 2001, the company was ripe for a takeover that, under Murdoch, is unlikely to exclude cost reduction.

No word on whether the Journal plans to outsource its subediting.

ONE FOR EVERYONE IN THE AUDIENCE

RTE RECEIVED a free gift recently from internet behemoth Google. The search giant's minimalist home page is giving way to what it terms iGoogle, which will allow even relatively techphobic users to design their own homepage with RSS feeds of photos, video, their calendar and email. It has even offered users software that will allow them to create their own. But if you are in Ireland and bring up iGoogle in your web browser, news and business feeds from RTE feature in the top spots.

In a world where we spend an increasing amount of time in front of computer screens and less in front of a TV screen, this is a major role reversal. As the web browser becomes the main item we use on our computers, the real estate in front of our eyeballs becomes that much more valuable.

A Google spokesman said the placement of the RTE feeds was simply the result of a computer algorithm that, for the moment, gave RTE the prime spots in the new platform. Bof"ns in RTE had to submit the 'Google Gadgets' for consideration, but no money changed hands. It's a little like RTE giving away airtime during the Late Late Show.

How long the "pre-monetised" grant of valuable space in front of eyeballs will remain immune to commercial considerations is, however, another matter.

EIN VOLK, EIN REICH, EIN TAOISEACH

PUBLIUS was going to ignore the rather odd decision by Fine Gael to hire a German company to print some of its posters. Then we saw Fianna Fail issue a statement on Friday on behalf of Noel Dempsey that alleged it was "a clear sign that Fine Gael has no intention of protecting Irish jobs and industry".

If it had come at another time we'd have thought it would be an issue. But the idea that Postergate could threaten the Bertie vs Vincenzo Manifesto Meltdown is this campaign's Maccaca Moment.

"Maccaca", some readers will recall, was the vague racial slur hurled at a camera-wielding campaign worker of Asian descent by Virginia Republican George Allen at a rally.

When posted on YouTube, millions of people sent it to each other to see for themselves. It effectively ended Allen's political career.

Publius will be keeping count of views of the various YouTube postings of the footage, which shows the shoulders of a disconsolate Bertie slump as he tries to "nd a place to look other than at Vincent. The more times you see it the worse it looks for Bertie. There isn't a particular moment in the encounter where the former Te"on Taoiseach de"nitively cracks, but there are still more than two weeks left in the campaign and YouTube doesn't close.

Even if Browne's unusual attendance at the launch was partly a stunt to boost sales of his Village magazine, it's a damned good effort.

TIPS, BRIBES & ABUSE all welcome at rdelevan@tribune. ie