Murdoch sees more bad news to come

He says he will not be making any deals at the annual jamboree for the world's top media moguls in sun Valley, idaho. the five-day event has often been the midwife to alliances and joint ventures between media and internet giants, but the financial market gloom is taking its toll on sentiment this year.

This time last year Murdoch was poised to seal the $5.2 billion (£2.63 billion) purchase of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall street Journal, but he says nothing is on the table this time.

"Not today, not this week," he said. Murdoch says Wall street banks will have to continue to sell assets to raise money.

"I'm a bit of a bear. I think there's more bad news to come and it'll take a year to shake out".

Murdoch said he'd be "happy" with a Dow at 11,000, "if it holds". Yesterday's close was 11,147.44, well off its all-time high of 14,000 last October. investment firms and big banks have written off more than $250 billion since the credit crisis started last year, and more writedowns are expected.

While most media firms have suffered, the tougher climate has been particularly hard on print media.