If there is one name that is synonymous with the internet then Vint Cerf, who co-developed the TCP/IP protocol, is certainly that name. Dr Cerf, chairman of ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers) and senior vice president for technology strategy at Global MCI, believes that the future of print news media is precarious, although he tries to be diplomatic about it.

Dr Cerf gave an inspiring presentation about the future of the internet to an enthralled audience of business leaders at CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) lunch in Melbourne today. He covered just about every topic known to humankind concerning the internet and its future in a highly entertaining and witty half hour PowerPoint presentation (PowerPoint corrupts he says).

After treating the audience to his insight into just about every conceivable issue concerning security (SPAM, SPIM and SPIT included), he talked about IP convergence affecting the business models of traditional telcos and the advent of Grid computing in business in the form of web services.

Of most interest to us in the internet content provision business, however, were Dr Cerf’s views on media. Far from the disdain that some vendors attempt to cast upon bloggers (Apple take note), Dr Cerf believes that blogging is already having a significant impact on conventional media providers. “Some bloggers know more about their subject matter than the traditional media,” says Dr Cerf. What’s more, he adds, quite often the print media is beginning to look to bloggers to get information. This differs quite significantly from an opinion offered by Apple lawyers last month that bloggers are not journalists but merely people who disseminate data and media releases (and what do most journalists do?).

In addition, Dr Cerf predicts that the present day print blogging will soon turn to video, which he terms vlogging. We would add that the advent of webcasting and podcasting presages this vision.

After the presentation, the floor was opened for questions and, of course, we couldn’t resist asking Dr Cerf publicly what he believed was the future of print media. Dr Cerf, believing us to be representative of a newspaper group was somewhat diplomatic in his answer, saying that print would not go away but would survive in a different form. Then he went on to talk about how books would always be with us, which was not relevant to our question as we asking about print news media.

Not being satisfied with Dr Cerf’s public answer, we approached him after the event and repeated the question, this time making it clear that we were not representing print media interests and we were talking specifically about newspapers. Dr Cerf’s reply was most enlightening. “It’s hard to see newspapers surviving in their present form, when you consider that people go online to look for real estate these days (as well as cars and jobs),” he said. “I still like to sit around reading the newspaper but it makes little difference what an old fart like me does. You really have to look at what young people aged between 13 and 20 are doing because they’re the ones who are going to determine the future.” And they’re the ones advertisers will be trying to reach.

The question then becomes how many young people these days buy a newspaper to get their news? In future, where will they go to look for a job, a car and their first house? Where will they go to get the latest sports results and commentary? Where will they go for the latest technology and business news? The answer to all of those questions is pretty self evident.