Rupert signs up for the web

Thursday, April 14, 2005

In a landmark speech in Washington overnight, Rupert Murdoch has officially announced the internet has arrived as a major medium. And when Rupert speaks, the media industry listens.

“Scarcely a day goes by that someone does not claim that technology writes newspapers’ obituary,” the News Corp founder and CEO told the American Society of  Newspaper Editors.

“I didn’t do as much as I should have after all the [internet] excitement of the late 1990s. I thought this thing called the digital revolution would just limp along. Well, it hasn’t. It is a fast-developing reality that we should grasp to improve our journalism and expand our reach.”

Murdoch said he comes to this discussion “not as an expert, but as someone who is searching for answers. I’m a digital immigrant. I wasn’t weaned on the web or coddled on a computer. My two young daughters, however, are digital natives.”

What is indisputable, he said, is that more and more advertising dollars are going online. “The threat of losing print advertising dollars to online media is very real. In fact, it’s already happening, particularly in classifieds.”