News Corporation shares have lost 20% of their value after the company cut its 2009 profit forecast from a single-digit increase on the $5.13bn operating profit it made last year to a double-digit decrease.
Murdoch said: "The revised guidance is a clear reflection of the current economic downturn which we believe will persist throughout fiscal 2009, proving extremely challenging to the media sector."
In regular trading on the Australian stock exchange News Corp shares fell 21.4% to AUS $12.50 after the company's first quarter results were published.
Before the results came out News Corp shares on the New York stock exchange fell 10% to $9.79, then another 12.2% to $8.60.
News Corp revealed a picture of falling revenues at its US television stations and UK and Australian newspaper businesses, compounded by disadvantageous currency movements due to its international profile.
According to Bloomberg and the Daily Telegraph Murdoch said there will be "across the board" job cuts at News Corp's UK and Australian newspapers, which include the Sun and The Times in the UK and The Australian, the Herald Sun in Melbourne and The Courier-Mail in Brisbane down under.
Murdoch said: "You will see even leaner operations in both those places.
"I am not prepared to say how many people. I know, but I don't want the headlines about it."
News International's UK newspapers are already understood to be reducing their commercial staff by 100 to 350 by unifying their sales teams.
Murdoch also said he planned to close 10 of the Wall Street Journal's 17 printing plants.
Revenue growth at News Corp's online operations including MySpace, which had been forecast to grow 30%, slowed to 17% for the three months to September 30.
The group's post-tax profit fell 30% to $515m (£322.2m), with the television division, which includes Fox in the US and Star in Asia, suffering a massive drop in operating income from $183m to $54m.
The best performing division was Sky Italia, which grew operating income from $48m to $165m.
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