In his memoir, “Good Times, Bad Times,” Mr. Evans wrote that Mr. Murdoch did not suggest specific editorial views. Rather, he made his feelings known “by jabbing a finger at headlines which he thought could have been more supportive of Mrs. Thatcher.”

In 1983, Mr. Murdoch caused a stir when he personally secured the publishing rights to what were said to be Hitler’s diaries, only to learn subsequently that they were fakes after publishing them in The Sunday Times.

“I think he’s learned quite a lot of lessons from The Times and The Sunday Times,” said Andrew F. Neil, a former editor of the latter paper for Mr. Murdoch, who is now a television interviewer and magazine executive in Britain. “He gives his quality newspaper editors a freer hand,” Mr. Neil said. “He’s much more hands-on with his tabloids. If you want to know what Rupert’s thinking, read The Post.”

Indeed, Mr. Murdoch said in an interview last week that he spoke with Col Allan, The Post’s editor, nearly every day. If Mr. Thomson — a former veteran of The Financial Times — is any indication, Mr. Murdoch is more inclined to gossip about world affairs, politics and business. And under Mr. Murdoch, Mr. Thomson has made considerable investments in The Times including transforming it from a broadsheet into a tabloid format (known as a “compact” among those who dislike the term “tabloid”) and to expand foreign bureaus significantly.

Mr. Murdoch, who sought a meeting with the Bancroft family, has not made any of his specific plans for the company public. But he is expected to take a similar expansive approach to the much-larger Journal, which he covets as much for its online operation WSJ.com as for the print edition. (In Dow Jones, Mr. Murdoch would also be buying a major news service, Barron’s, MarketWatch.com, half of SmartMoney magazine and other assets.)

Should he ultimately succeed, one thing people who follow or have worked with him say to expect is a wrenching look at the newspaper’s costs, coupled with an ambitious long-term plan to revitalize and expand The Journal’s international operations and integrate them with other News Corporation Web sites around the world.

With The Times in London, as well as The New York Post, Mr. Murdoch has also shown that he will tolerate losses, sometimes for years. He relies on the fact that newspapers account for only 14 percent of his company’s more than $26 billion in annual revenues. The company’s bigger and often more profitable businesses include the 20th Century Fox film and TV studio, the Fox TV network and cable channels, and the BSkyB satellite service in Britain.