Meanwhile, what of Fairfax, the Australian newspaper group that Indo wants to purchase control of once local media ownerships are relaxed?

Indo's APN offshoot in Australia, along with its Wilson & Horton subsidiary in New Zealand, are apparently the proposed vehicles for a bid that would test the limits of financial engineering, given Indo's own debt load.

Recent results from Fairfax were dreadful and the outlook for the next year or so is grim. Fairfax chief executive Mr Fred Hilmer warned that, without a pick-up in advertising, profits in 2002 could be well below this year's 128 million Australian dollars (€69 million).

Last year's results from Fairfax were its worst in three years and show that even trophy titles don't always produce the goods on the bottom line.