The Sun, if you take a six-month look at its circulation performance, is over 10% off 2014’s pace (the Mirror lost only 7%). The Sun on Sunday sets 12.4% down. There’s no better test, then, of Rupert Murdoch’s continuing hegemony in the historic part of empire closest to his heart.

In the old days, he’d have poured in cash, marketing and resolve: he’d have boomed his way out of crisis in sole flush proprietor mode. But now there’s a redundancy programme unwinding. Now the tablets of stone that put digital behind an impenetrable paywall are being hacked into little pieces. Now the sweaty squeeze is on – as though Rupert were a conventional non-tycoon, obliged to operate in modest, price-conscious ways: an ordinary mortal at last.