For the past year or so, News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch has been a consistent voice of pessimism, and he forecast an ugly economy before his big media peers did. And now he’s more upbeat than his fellow media CEOS. Here’s his opening salvo: “It is increasingly clear that the worst is over… there are emerging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous decline are done and that revenues are beginning to look healthier.”

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It’s reorg day, although this one was less of a surprise: In the wake of News Corp. COO Peter Chernin’s departure, Rupert Murdoch is reshuffling the top names at his Fox businesses, which Chernin oversaw. Murdoch had hinted at this last month when he told the troops that it was “time to streamline” the company. Prominently not mentioned: Rupert’s son, James, who is supposed to be his eventual successor.

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All the smart money said that Peter Chernin would never leave his job as the number two guy at News Corp. and that all the will-he-won’t-he we’ve heard over the past few months was simply a negotiating ploy. Looks like all of us were less clever than we thought. Chernin, whose contract as COO expires at the end of June, won’t be staying on.

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Under normal circumstances, if the CEOs of big companies like Cisco, Microsoft, and Comcast speak in front of an audience of bigwigs, it’s news. But you’re unlikely to hear what John Chambers, Steve Ballmer and Brian Roberts say today and tomorrow at Quadrangle’s Foursquare conference–no press allowed. Unless…

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Rupert Murdoch, who has been dour about the economy since last spring, now says things are worse than he thought. Three months ago, the News Corp. CEO was predicting operating profits to increase four percent to six percent by the middle of next year; yesterday the company said it now expects a decline in the low-to-mid teens. And yes, the company is seeing “softness” in advertising at MySpace and its other Web sites.

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MySpace pushes a pretend candidate to New York publishers and ad agencies. But the company’s real results come a day after election day: On Wednesday, parent company News Corp. will have to tell investors how the giant Web site’s ad sales are performing.

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