It's a terrible time to be a News Corp.-owned UK tabloid, but a pretty sweet time if you happen to be the competition. Case in point: The Daily Mail & General Trust newspaper group is feasting on a schadenfreude smorgasbord over Rupe's recent troubles. CEO Martin Morgan was still picking the gristle from his teeth at a press conference today in which he touted the completely above-board means by which his journalists overturn garbage cans obtain their stories:

"We're considering whether there's a gap in the market for a new Sunday title," Morgan told journalists on a conference call after the group reported a 2 percent increase in underlying revenue for the quarter to end-June on Tuesday.

"Our titles have not published stories based on hacked messages," he said, adding that the company saw no need for an internal investigation into its newsgathering practices.

Well, there you go! If you can't trust a CEO's word, whose can you trust? [Reuters, image via Lancastrian's Flickr]