Ex-Australian, and now American media tycoon Rupert Murdoch has warned that newspaper editors should not ignore the threat imposed by blogs, in a speech given to the American Society of Newspapers Editors in Washington Wednesday.

Murdoch urged newspaper editors to embrace the Internet, saying print news executives have “sat by and watched” as a new generation of digital consumers has turned away from newspapers.

He said consumers wanted “control over the media, instead of being controlled by it”, pointing to the proliferation of blogs as an example.

Interestingly Murdoch dismissed the notion that online newspapers would be able to charge for their content.

Reports of the speech can be found here, here, here and here.