News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch has a $5 billion crush on the owner of The Wall Street Journal, Thomson is eyeing Reuters and Microsoft apparently is flirting again with Internet icon Yahoo.

The media mating dance that broke out this week is part of a mad scramble not to just provide the content, but to find the right mix of technology and business savvy to remain relevant and profitable amid the upheaval wrought by the rise of the Web.