Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Ltd., said there is no simple solution to bring a newsroom up to speed in the digital age.

“The 24/7 newsroom means every roster, work practice and habit must change ... multi-skilling staff is becoming the norm,” he is quoted by the Herald as saying.

Hartigan also said changes in advertising in the new age of newspapers mean that “perhaps we need to accept that the relationship between editorial and advertising is going to be very different online to the way it's been possible in print.”

However, although the Internet is rising, newspapers are not in trouble, Hartigan said in his speech. While newspaper revenues are growing at a slower rate than other media, print “still accounts for the majority of our revenues and profits and this will still be the case years from now.”

In a forecast made last week, PricewaterhouseCoopers stated that Australia's $5.1 billion newspaper industry will continue to rake in the most consumer and advertising dollars over the next five years, with a growth rate of 1.3 percent each year to $5.5 billion in 2011, the Herald reported.

“We can't forget the power of print,” Hartigan said.