News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has warned that power is tilting away from traditional media as consumers flock to the Internet, posing a serious threat to existing business models. "Power is moving away from the old elite in our industry -- the editors, the chief executives and, let's face it, the proprietors," he said in a speech to a printing guild in London on Monday evening, a day after his 75th birthday.
"A new generation of media consumers has risen demanding content delivered when they want it, how they want it, and very much as they want it."
News Corp, owner of the 20th Century Fox film studios and Fox News Channel, has moved into the online sector with its acquisition of the social networking site MySpace last year along with several other deals.
"Today one of our great challenges is to understand and seize the opportunities presented by the Web," he added. "It is a creative, destructive, technology that is still in its infancy, yet breaking and remaking everything in its path."
Murdoch, whose company also owns the New York Post, Britain's the Sun and the Times of London, warned that newspaper and television companies would have to revamp their businesses to adapt to the changing media landscape.
"So, media becomes like fast food -- people will consume it on the go, watching news, sport and film clips as they travel to and from work, on mobiles or handheld wireless devices like Sony's PSP, or others already in test by our satellite companies," he said.
"Newspapers will have to adapt as their readers demand news and sport on a variety of platforms: websites, iPods, mobile phones or laptops," Murdoch added.
"I believe traditional newspapers have many years of life left but, equally, I think in the future that newsprint and ink will be just one of many channels to our readers."
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