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.”

See this report from Editor and Publisher , and this from the media section in today’s Australian.