In other words, yesteryear’s automatic expectation of double-digit traffic growth to satisfy advertisers is as over as the belief that those advertisers alone can fund this stuff.

In traffic terms, this was the year Mail Online, Guardian.co.uk and Telegraph.co.uk broke away from the pack, Independent.co.uk bobbed along, Mirror Group made improvements and Sun Online ebbed and flowed.

In total, uniques to all seven of the ABCe-audited national publishers grew 29 percent over 2009 to 158.5 million a month. That’s nice if you’re still in the eyeballs game - but Murdoch and, increasingly, others are realising that their own eyes must start seeing greater revenue soon if these numbers are to mean anything.