Techcrunch is reporting that Digg is being shopped around to News Corp and other companies for a paltry $150 million dollars. Digg has been unable to control bandwidth cost or monetize the traffic, without a buyer they will enter Series B funding from Greylock Partners.

TechGoss is noting a slip-up by News Corp's Austrialian newspaper Telegraph misreported the Australia And New Zealand Banking Group Limited (ANZ) had outsourced its call center to India. ANZ responded with a correction stating it's call center was still Australia, only it's software development was done overseas. Telegraph editors stood by the story, so ANZ decided to make a withdrawal of AUS$5 million dollars in advertising.

Good thing MySpace can't possibly be worth $20 billion as a crazed analyst projected last week — because if it is, ousted founder Brad Greenspan has a bone to pick.

Yesterday was a beautiful day, with blue skies and unseasonable warmth. The birds sang, children danced, and our hearts were full of love as we learned that Lachlan Murdoch might return to New York and resume his role at News Corp. We cried tears of joy, hopeful for the possibility that the most luscious mogul would come back to us. But as the sun went down, the rain came, washing away the happiness and ushering in a gray, cold, miserable excuse of a morning:

The weather today is expected to be gorgeous, with the fall sun brightly shining, warming our flesh and our hearts one last time before the leaves turn. Children skip through the streets, pleasant music drifts from the windows of friendly neighbors, and your morning coffee is served with an earnest hug. There's magic in the air, and after an unpleasant week full of school shootings and perverse congressmen, we begin today with hope:

• NYP's Tim Arango becomes only reporter in last month not snapped up by Portfolio; he's going to Fortune. [NYO]
• NewsCorp buys up a bunch of metropolitan-area newspapers. Expect them to be rebranded as Queenist and Only the Paper Knows Brooklyn any day now. [NYT]
• If David Geffen buys the LAT will the paper be able to cover his friends fairly? Speaking as the employees of a gay media magnate ourselves, we're gonna say no. [DHD]

The Los Angeles Times dazzles us today with a hard-hitting investigation into the lives of ancient moguls, specifically that of Viacom's Sumner Redstone and News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch. According to the Times, the "fountain of youth" that keeps these two cranky old men standing upright is — and you're not going to believe this, really — younger wives. Yes, it's true: if you're very old and very rich, securing yourself a significantly younger trophy womb will stave off senility for at least an extra two months!

What would we ever do without the creative reporting of Variety?

A news site quotes News Corp COO Peter Chernin saying Flickr, YouTube, and all the other popular content-sharing sites from the last few years are just suckling at the MySpace teat.

The Wall Street Journal reported this morning that News Corp. is springing for Chairman Rupert Murdoch's $50,000/month penthouse in the Trump Park Avenue building. Granted, the poor guy is awaiting the completion of renovations to his UES penthouse that he bought two years ago for $44 million, so it's only fair that the publicly held company helps its fearless leader through the tough times. But $50,000 a month? We can think of so many other things News Corp. could buy Rupert with that money...

• If all of America isn't laughing at Michael Tracey, they should be. [RMN]
• Rupert Murdoch to distribute 400,000 copies of his paper free. This is in London, though; over here you've still got to drop a quarter for that crap. [Guardian]
• Hyperion launches new imprint for women who want to read chick lit but don't want to know that they're reading chick lit. [NYT]
• This shouldn't be news to anyone, but A.N. Wilson is a shit. [Times UK]

If you read the Drudge Report yesterday, you saw this link to the (UK) Sun's coverage of "party-loving" Prince Harry enjoying the company of a young woman while, as the Sun has it "saucily groping her BOOB with one hand." (The gropee is described as a "pretty blond"; the News Corp exhange program really is a thing of beauty.) The Sun went on to explain that "The fun-loving shots were taken in a trendy London nightclub."

Speaking of MySpace, an article in today's Financial Times notes a new research tool for media professionals trying to make sense of the digital age: their children. "Media executives," the paper reports, "are scrambling to understand a variety of new technologies and internet services that did not exist only a few years ago but are now rapidly remaking their industry." And it's not just harried moms asking their kids about ringtones in the car on the way to soccer practice.

News Corp. has announced a multi-million dollar public service campaign to promote internet safety, as their MySpace property has become the go-to site for media panic over online predators. Their centerpiece PSA is a television spot starring a barely sober Kiefer Sutherland, who really knows how to break it down and keep it real:

A recent Low Concept item on Slate honored the dirtiest old man on all of MySpace, Rupert Murdoch, by giving him his own MySpace page. According to his profile, Murdoch's looking to meet both "a new step-mum for Lachlan" and "a new Lachlan," and his friends include Katherine McPhee, "JP Stizzern in da hizzy," and the Arctic Monkeys. Actually, we're not so sure this is a mock-up.

Oh boy, another list! The ink has hardly dried on Business 2.0 Magazine's People Who Matter list, and Wired Magazine has already trumped it with the annual "Wired 40" list. While Business 2.0 is just playing Truman Capote, Wired's list is a de facto investment guide for the casual midwestern techie. Some highlights:

"Everything we've ever done is about giving people choices," says News Corp. owner Rupert Murdoch, explaining his purchase of MySpace. "Technology is shifting power away from the editors, the publishers, the establishment, the media elite. Now it's the people who are taking control." Oh look, says Wired Magazine, Rupe IS the media elite, how lovely that he's on our side, ha ha, the man's a visionary.

In the latest installment of how to bite the hand that once fed you, former Page Sixer Ian Spiegelman had a 15-minute phoner on Howard Stern yesterday morning; aside from the usual vitriol and stereotype-enforcing tough talk, Spiegelman had something to say about his old employers:

Because we are but troglodytic cave dwellers who know nothing about the outside world, New York has informed us that Rupert Murdoch is very, very influential. And they were right, by golly. After his minions at the Post attacked Senator Hillary Clinton with "Don't Run" headlines, it was reported yesterday that he'll now be hosting a fundraiser for her in July. It's not particularly mind-boggling: keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer — especially if, you know, she has a chance to become President.

Far from the innovative leader the media treats them as, Tom Anderson and Chris DeWolfe were just "cabin boys" for MySpace, says blogger Trent Lapinski. The 19-year-old journalism student blows open the scandalous story behind MySpace — the story every major paper missed. The makers of MySpace included an ex-con and a whole family of insider traders.