OK, maybe Rupert Murdoch really is serious about charging for online newspaper content, after all: The News Corporation chairman has reportedly dispatched his lieutenant to form some kind of newspaper pay-wall gang.

Murdoch's "Chief Digital Officer" (gag) Jonathan Miller is trying to put together a "consortium that would charge for news distributed online," the Los Angeles Times reports. Read: A content cartel. Miller is trying to recruit the New York Times Company, Washington Post Comany, Hearst and Tribune as charter members. So if Murdoch is bluffing about paid content, as we've speculated, trying to get his competitors to make the leap while his own free websites poach their readers, Miller doesn't know about it.

Which is probably just as well: Legitimate Businessmen with reason to think they might get hassled by the feds have to be careful what they tell one another. Need to know basis only!

Send an email to Ryan Tate, the author of this post, at ryan@gawker.com.