Murdoch's Newspaper Predictions: Printed Newspaper May Go Away, One Chicago Newspaper Will Die (VIDEO)

News Corp Chairman Rupert Murdoch made an appearance on his corporation's business station, Fox Business Network, Thursday to speak to Brian Sullivan about the future of newspapers.

Murdoch, a steadfast believer in newspapers, acknowledged that people may consume newspaper products on electronic devices in the future but assured that online content will be paid for eventually.

"Newspapers may look very different. Instead of an analog product printed on paper, you may get it on a panel which will be mobile, which will receive the whole newspaper over the air, and be updated every hour or two. All of these things are possible.

"You're going to have to pay for your favorite newspaper on the Web," he added. Free content online "is going to stop. Newspapers will be selling subscriptions on the Web. The whole thing [premium content] will be there. The Web as it is today will be vastly improved, they'll be much in them and you'll pay for them."

Murdoch added that News Corp would "never take money from the government" because it would represent the end of freedom of the press. "I don't believe even the New York Times would," he said. "I don't think the government would even do it. They'd realize this would be the end of it."

Murdoch closed the interview with a prediction that one of the Chicago newspapers will die.

"One will go away," he said. "It's very hard to see how the Sun-Times can keep going. I thought it was hard when I owned it ten years ago."

Watch:

Comments

[allegorphian]

Retired after 30 years as a newspaperman, I read such predictions and weep, watching my former profession go the way of buggy whip makers. And now, as a free-lance writer and editor, I quote a sign once over my desk: "Books (and newspapers) are dangerous, they make you think." Think about it. And think about morning coffee without a paper; consider who will cover all the city council meetings, planning commission meetings, dig out stories in the "cop shops;" as well as community cultural events. . .and more, ad inifinitum. . .You can't wrap a fish in a laptop.

[GoodFeathers]

By you read tomorrow's news paper, the story is tooooooooo­oooooooooo­oooooooooo­ooooooooo old.

[ChrisJones]

Rupert Murdoch as a fellow Australian,ex Adelaide at that. I am ashamed of you. I pray that you loose all of your News media including FOX. The day I have to pay for the web,will be the last day I participate.

[BushBites]

If the SunTimes survived Murdoch's disastrous reign, it can survive anything.

[naschkatze]

Please, dear God, let it be The Tribune.

[leonel]

OLD AUTOCRATIC TYPES LIKE MURDOCH ARE THE REAL PROBLEM, THEY ARE GOING OUT FASTER THAN NEWSPAPERS, BUT BOTH GOING OUT TOGETHER. FUTURE ORIENTATION OF POLITICS IS NECESSARY JUST TO KEEP UP.

The fact is that everything seems to be catching everybody by surprise. No more media moguls like Murdoch are believable. No more liberals or conservatives with credibility. Pragmatism and empathy are the new way of thinking and cooperating. Creating perplexed media and elected officials. It's only beginning.

[mouselion]

Print, television and radio advertising costs an arm and a leg to buy - internet advertising still does not.
Less people get their information from print, television or radio than they do internet.
This trend is not going to change with mass communication.
Perhaps it's the advertisers the media companies be should eying for more income?

The "we can't give content away for free" meme is hollow. Television and radio has always been that way.
The model is already in place - it has worked for half a century.

Wake up Murdoch. Free content will keep your industry healthy if you're willing to charge what the TV networks charge for advertising. Of course, they'll pay it - they already are paying it.

[260Parkway]

When it does go away can we aski it to be so kind as to take Fox News with it???

[RJPasadena]

I canceled the LA Times, I don't watch ABC, NBC, CBS, FAKE News, and all the so-called Liberal Media because they are the Mainstream Republican Corporate Media. They refuse to tell the truth about the war, Bush, Cheney, and Co., because they were implicit in the wars. They did not do their job. They do not counter the lies from these people. The focus on Pelosi, lies about the new Supreme Court nominee, they spew the Rethug lies on mainstream media.

If everyone stops watching these shows, they will change maybe or go broke.

[Dustee]

The Chicago Tribune is a right leaning publication. I don't know how it lasted so long. But it seems that there is more discussion here in Chicago about the Tribune expiring then the Chicago Sun-Times.

[Z2a]

I don't know where you're from, but the Sun-Times filed for bankruptcy awhile ago. Tribune has a significantly larger pool of wealth to work from. I dont like Murdoch, but he's right, the Sun-Times will go away by the end of the decade.

[ChiStephanie]

@Z2a The Trib filed for bankrupcy long before the Sun-Times. The Trib is also laboring under a significant amount of crushing bank debt, which the S-T is not. So most likely, the S-T will pull out of this quicker than the Trib.

[BushBites]

Um.......Tribune filed for bankruptcy long before the SunTimes did.

They're both in trouble: Largely because of bad previous owners, of which Murdoch was one.

[ipv4]

No one is going to pay for premium content when they can go to blogs for free. This could be the end of the way the traditional newspaper runs their business.

[Wayne1ea]

I wish he would go away.

[BushBites]

He will.

Have you seen his picture lately?

[ChrisJones]

Me too Wayne1ea

[Fritziscool]

It seems that everything that Murdoch( AARGH) touches is poisoned. Newspapers, television, cable news.Magazines, Baseball-His Kids. As they say in the butcher shop: You can only put so much crap into bologna before it stopsbecoming bologna.

Will Rush Limbaugh say that he hopes that he fail.

[AlexNYC]

Nobody in history has done more to harm the integrity of the printed newspaper than Murdoch. I hope Murdoch goes away.

[houseboat67]

I agree. He done more to dumb down the planet than anyone in the last 50 years.

[Rachel36]

You took the words right out of my mouth.

[LetMeUnderstandThis]

Ditto, the fact that he can a newspaper and tv network in the same city is just appalling let alone illegal.

[Shawn Drewry]

The internet is taking over in every kind of way imaginable and beyond. What do you expect..LOL

http://www.ShawnDrewry.com

http://www.YouTube.com/DrewryOnlineLive