Rupert Murdoch's speech to the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Washington outlined how and why entrenched media companies must respond to fundamental changes occurring in the world of media. Murdoch emphasized the importance of the Internet for today's news editors, using an extended metaphor about "immigrants" and "natives" to make his point clear. In many ways, "digital immigrants" must strive to catch up with the new generation of "digital natives" who are already at home on the Internet.

Blogs, not surprisingly, could play an important part in how Murdoch's own media empire bridges the gap between the 'natives' and the 'immigrants':

"Our internet site will have to do still more to be competitive. For some, it may have to become the place for conversation. The digital native doesn’t send a letter to the editor anymore. She goes online, and starts a blog. We need to be the destination for those bloggers...

At the same time, we may want to experiment with the concept of using bloggers to supplement our daily coverage of news on the Net... [Bloggers] may still serve a valuable purpose; broadening our coverage of the news; giving us new and fresh perspectives to issues; deepening our relationship to the communities we serve..."

For more perspective on what the speech means, Jeff Jarvis of Buzz Machine has extensive commentary. The mainstream media is also picking up on the story. Newsday, for example, has more on how Murdoch might shake up the Web site of the New York Post.