Veteran French media analyst Dominique Wolton has denounced claims of the print newspaper's demise, labelling such statements as "just stoopid," the Melbourne Age reported Wednesday.

"Everybody says this is the finish for newspaper, (that) tomorrow the news will only be on the Internet, because it's direct, free - this is stupid. The more there is the Internet, the more you need newspapers," he said. Wolton is lecturing in Melbourne as part of the Pacific tour by Paris-based National Centre for Scientific Research.

Wolton called the industry out for its ideological incarceration to what he calls "technical ideology" - the belief that information is better on a screen than on paper.

"We need both," he said, according to The Age. "With the net you get speed ... by paper, you get time, the length, the reflection, the construction. "For too long, everybody believes the more techniques, the more we will communicate together. I don't think so. You can spend 10 hours today on a machine, and you can be unable to speak and have communication with people. Connection is very different from communication."

Wolton said he sees the ongoing importance of traditional forms of mass media in their societal role, and believes digital media will never fulfill the communicative bonding role of traditional media channels.

He acknowledges the negative economic effect of the Internet on newspaper's advertising revenue, but is convinced print based journalism will transcend the online age.