Well at least someone is making some cash off of the Wall Street crisis. Of course, since the Financial Times is based in London, it's not anyone in this country getting rich off the recession, but since it's an English-speaking country and we're desperate, it's close enough.

Staring mid-October, The Financial Times' website will be granting "casual readers" complimentary access to its online content. The move will enable would-be viewers to read up to 30 articles per month and give the FT an opportunity to get a leg up on competitors like the Wall Street Journal Online (without pulling a TimesSelect) by becoming a growing online presence.

[The shift] comes as other newspapers are rethinking their efforts to charge users for online content. A surge in online ad spending over the past three years has persuaded many publishers that it is better to increase their Internet audience, in an effort to appeal to advertisers, than to try to squeeze meager revenue from online subscriptions.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Murdoch and the Dow Jones Co. will retaliate in kind, either by offering WSJ readers a similar online premium or by taking over the Financial Times Group (owned by Pearson PLC) in an effort to singlehandedly control every international financial news outlet and, ultimately, the world.

Despite not actually enjoying reading New York's two lowbrow papers, we do enjoy watching their rivalry. But that's not enough for Rupert Murdoch. Now he's set to pit the business papers we don't read against each other.

Last week, The Wall Street Journal announced the launch of Pursuits, of a new glossy supplement which will cover the adventures of the uberrich. We're eagerly anticipating the 1,500 word piece about how it really is hard to find good help these days.

Pursuits will compete with the Financial Times’s magazine, How To Spend It. The magazine fits into News Corp.’s plan to “crush” the Financial Times.

Sadly, this new competition should be less dirty (or at least more subtle) than the one between the Post and the Daily News. Murdoch, at least entertain us with your petty rivalries.

"Financial Times says it's met with several possible partners," writes the International Herald Tribune. Kinky! But even though they've recently admitted that they're looking for a partner (or perhaps a sugar daddy) it appears they're not ready to commit until they've finished playing the field.

We're talking to all sorts of people about different distribution channels," says Marjorie Scardino, CEO of Pearson, which owns the Financial Times. She declines to discuss any plans for head-to-head competition with a Wall Street Journal owned by Rupert Murdoch, but says "it is impossible not to respect him as a newspaper man."

In response, a disgruntled Rupert Murdoch immediately went onto the Financial Times' Facebook page and wrote "Game ON!!!!" on their wall—a point he then emphasized with an angry emoticon—and then further retaliated by changing their friendship status to "You are corporate frenemies" and updating his personal status to "Crotchety."

What would happen if CNBC, on the brink of losing its Wall Street Journal partnership if Rupert Murdoch has his way, instead teamed up with the Financial Times to bring you the news and analysis it's unable to produce in-house?

Well, we'll tell you: Not a whole damn lot.

The arrangement between CNBC and FT – which is owned by Pearson PLC, who made a half-hearted bid with GE to buy Dow Jones – would look quite similar to the one they've got going with the Journal. They'd share video clips. They'd share articles. They'd share experts. And they'd share insight as to which exec is going to bang Maria Bartiromo next.

Well, that was about as short-lived as the career of a So You Think You Can Dance winner. GE ducked out of the race for Dow Jones, leaving stodgy candidates like Rupert Murdoch to cover. On the bright side, GE's move forces Financial Times owner Pearson to backtrack on and CEO Marjorie Scardino claims she would only sell their paper "over my dead body."

• Penthouse magazine attempts to disguise dirty, dirty porn as "art."

• Bob Barker spins the wheel, commits his very last act of sexual harassment as host of The Price Is Right.

• CNN anchor Heidi Collins is thrilled at being forced to cover Paris Hilton.

• If Conrad Black is going down, he's taking his old company with him. Sun-Times, formerly Hollinger International Inc., "has endured a 46 percent drop in its stock price since Black was ousted as chairman in January 2004." And they say crime doesn't pay!

• The 2007 Webby Awards are five-and-half-hours we'll never get back. But at least they had toilet humor!

• With Rupert Murdoch (possibly) taking over Dow Jones, the solution is simple: the Financial Times should simply hire the top 100 Wall Street reporters, and beat Murdoch to the punch.

• Leave it to the Daily News to call out the New York Post on ties to the Bonanno crime family. Having Rupert Murdoch's paper in their pocket (thanks to employee "Vinny Bionics") is an asset worth protecting, but the Olsen twins would have more to gain than the mob. [NYDN]

• The Wall Street Journal's parent, Dow Jones & Co., is looking to muddy its feet with some Judith Miller. They've filed a request to unseal eight pages of redacted documents that were critical in convincing judges that Judy needed to testify. Stupid newspapers and their quest for the free flow of information. [E&P]

• Everyone – and we mean everyone – agrees that Corporation for Public Broadcasting chairman Ken Tomlinson's resignation is a good thing. [B&C]

• NYT publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. is rallying support to "upgrade the ethical standards of journalism," which matches nicely with his new khakis and campaign to oust Judith Miller. [Guardian]

• Incoming Financial Times editor Lionel Barber is quickly doing away with the double-edged news desk, though his "real" plans for the paper aren't expected till late this month. [Guardian]

• While Google resumes its Library project, Amazon.com isn't letting the search giant get too much of a head start. The bookstore-and-more is debuting Amazon Pages, which lets consumers buy books a few pages at a time, which works for us given our attention spans. [News.com]

• MTV is getting even larger, but just because they're launching more channels and media properties doesn't mean music videos will return anytime soon. [Reuters]

• Hilary Duff's been chasing Lindsay Lohan for years, so it sounds appropriate that she's reached her levels of waif. [Star]

• This week in Us: Britney Spears takes off with baby Preston to mom's Louisiana house to escape Kevin Federline's hard partying. Shar Jackson looks on, amused. [Us Weekly]

• It is any surprise that the majority of the city's 10 worst subway stations are in the Bronx? Thought not. [NYDN]

• Time Inc.'s Real Simple and Dennis' Maxim are trolling their way into international stardom, separately announcing plans for global editions to bring anal retentiveness and gratuitous lingerie shots abroad, respectively. [Folio:]

• Al Pacino owns up to a not so well kept secret: His movies of the last 30 years suck. [Gatecrasher]

• Financial Times editor Andrew Gowers quit the newspaper after 22 years on the job, citing something about "strategic differences," which we usually understand to mean "I want my money, motherfucker." [AFX]