在對報紙的哀歌一片中，媒體大亨默多克力挺報業，他說報紙比博客有優勢，另外雖然“物理”發行量減少，但是報紙將以一種品牌力量在網絡時代存在下去。他表示，現在人們對信息的渴望比以往任何時候都要強烈，而報紙比博客和其他新媒體有優勢，因為報紙更加獲得讀者信任。讀者所需要的是一個可以信任的消息來源，而這始終是報紙最偉大的使命。

Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch says doomsayers who are predicting that the Internet will kill off newspapers are "misguided cynics" who fail to grasp that the online world is potentially a huge new market of information-hungry consumers.

Global media magnate Rupert Murdoch says doomsayers who are predicting that the Internet will kill off newspapers are "misguided cynics" who fail to grasp that the online world is potentially a huge new market of information-hungry consumers.

Newspaper companies in the US and elsewhere are facing fundamental changes to their businesses as more people get their news from the Internet and other sources, and advertisers follow the market away from the paper-and-ink format.

Murdoch, the Australian-born chairman of News Corp, said in a speech broadcast on Sunday titled "The Future of Newspapers: Moving Beyond Dead Trees" that the Internet offered opportunities as well as challenges and that newspapers would always be around in some form or other.

"Too many journalists seem to take a perverse pleasure in ruminating on their pending demise," Murdoch said in a speech, recorded in the US and relayed nationally by the Australian Broadcasting Corp. It was the latest in an annual ABC series of lectures by a prominent Australian.

"I believe that newspapers will reach new heights" in the 21st century, Murdoch said.

He said people now were "hungrier for information that ever before" and that papers have an edge over bloggers and other newcomers because they are more trusted by readers.

"Readers want what they've always wanted: a source they can trust," Murdoch said. "That has always been the role of great newspapers in the past. And that role will make newspapers great in the future."

He said newspapers would have to evolve from the physical item to "news brands" that are delivered in a variety of ways and are flexible for readers.

"I like the look and feel of newsprint as much as anyone," he said. "But our real business isn't printing on dead trees. It's giving our readers great journalism and great judgment."

(Agencies)

Vocabulary:

have an edge over: 比..占優勢

（英語點津 Helen 編輯）