Rupert Murdoch’s weekend retreat for News Corp.’s news and online executives to discuss digital strategy was off the record.

But that didn’t stop BuzzMachine’s Jeff Jarvis, one of several outsiders invited to attend, from blogging it. And we thank him for it because, otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to hear of several interesting nuggets.

They include:

• Some News Corp. employed newspaper editor actually didn’t know what Facebook does and whether anyone had tried buying them. (”But (Gawker Media founder Nick) Denton and I were also standing nearby as a newspaper editor asked Mark (Zuckerberg, Facebook founder) what Facebook is and then asked him whether anybody had tried to buy him. Denton practically spewed a spit take. Naw, nobodys interested.”)
• Murdoch is “enchanted” with Zuckerberg, an observation that led Fishbowl L.A. to wonder if News Corp. is mulling a purchase of Facebook. Short answer? “No, in Zuckerberg, I think Murdoch sees a fellow mogul in the making.”
• Jarvis witnesses a priceless moment. “One of the execs leaned over to me and pointed to Murdoch at a table across the room. Id love to have a picture of that, he said as Murdoch pored over the weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal.”
• Advice to Dow Jones, whom Murdoch is courting: “Murdoch is not an ogre. Hes a gracious and charming mogul. And the reason his people like working there is that he leaves them to operate more independently than Ive seen in other companies so long as they succeed, of course. Lots of them become lifers.”