WHEN Rupert Murdoch came to Melbourne in October 2008, he met with Herald Sun editor-in-chief Bruce Guthrie and other senior News Limited executives. After expressing satisfaction at how his Melbourne tabloid was progressing, but wanting to lift circulation further, Murdoch asked, “How is the Age faring these days?” His managers ventured the opinion that Melbourne could be a one-newspaper town in five years. Murdoch “looked determinedly at us,” reports Guthrie in his book Man Bites Murdoch. “That,” he said through gritted teeth, “has to be our goal.”