Speaking to the Press Gazette to mark the paper's 40th anniversary, he talks about his newspaper rivals, saying he does not want to criticise anyone at Trinity Mirror because he has "a lot of friends" there. However, he admitted the group is having problems and has not managed to stem its declining fortunes.
"I think when you're managing decline, that's a terrible admission," he said. "There are certainly difficulties with their national papers... so as a business, they've got problems."
He had kinder words for his Daily Mail publishing rival Associated Newspapers, calling it "interesting" and "aggressive".
"I would never underestimate them," he added.
Murdoch also lifts the lid on his pet hate, the ongoing flood of DVD giveaways in newspapers.
"I personally hate this DVD craze. It doesn't matter that it was the Mail on Sunday who started it, or anyone else. The fact is, sales go up for a day. And are right back to where they were the following day."
He said the craze for DVDs is damaging journalism, despite his papers The Sun, News of the World, Times and Sunday Times joining in on the trend. He said it had to stop.
He also predicts an end to the price war that he famously waged in the early 90s. He said the industry had seen the last of that for a long time.
Murdoch believes papers' price should not be a significant reason for purchase. He said daily newspapers are all over-priced, despite The Sun putting its price up recently.
He described himself as an "agent of change" and said it was perfectly natural that people would "be a bit paranoid about me".
Murdoch touched on politics, saying he was neutral about the Cameron/Davis Tory leadership campaign and that he predicts "interesting times ahead" for Tony Blair.
However, on the question of who his papers would back next time around in the General Election in 2009 he said it was too early to say. Any party could be backed, he said.
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