A measure of how worried the old media is getting about the new came with the lecture by Les Hinton, the chairman of News International in the UK, to the Society of Newspaper Editors. He complained about the ‘freeloading generation’ who have become too used to getting their news for free. He moaned about bloggers spreading inaccurate information about the Hurricance that struck New Orleans. “In New Orleans a lot of bad information came from bloggers and amateur witnesses, all newly empowered with instant communication,” he said. “We must be experts at getting it right and being reliable.” Well, fair enough….although some people might be tempted to wonder whether the publisher of The Sun and the News of the World is really the right man to be lecturing the world on journalistic integrity. Indeed, one reason why blogging has grown so quickly might be because people aren’t getting the kind of news they need from the newspapers.

The interesting point is that figures such as Hinton can see power, and more importantly money, bleeding away onto the web, and can’t quite think what to do about it. The figures from the newspaper industry continue to be very disappointed, both in circulation and advertising. One thing is certain. Just whinging won’t fix the problem.