Mediaboss Marketing

Competitive: Seven Group executive chairman Kerry Stokes. Photo: Nic Walker

Newspapers, radio and television will be there, but they'll be different and the companies that have long delivered their content might be gone. The Australian media a couple of years from now will be even more focused on fulfilling people's desires for content any time, anywhere.

Excluding live sports, the trend for on-demand content will intensify. But there will be a consumer impost, whether it's privacy, subscriptions or one-off costs, or inescapable ads.

Media ownership laws might be changed, leading to mergers and takeovers involving big old companies such as Nine and Fairfax.

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And as the splash surrounding this week's announcement demonstrates - Rupert Murdoch has promoted his sons Lachlan and James; Lachlan is now viewed as the likely successor - News Corp will continue to be a big player.

Foreign companies Google and Facebook might need to pay more tax. And depending on political will and the strength of private media businesses, the ABC might be more influential.

Former competition tsar Graeme Samuel said the internet had made content king and ''he who has control of the king can demand subscriptions and dollars''.

In a sign of where Lachlan Murdoch sees the future, he has been talking more like a Silicon Valley technology entrepeneur than an old-fashioned print baron. On being promoted to co-chairman this week, he boasted that News Corp had ''the energy and sensibility of a start-up''.

But that future is also under the microscope, as it often is, under a still-new government. After a fractious relationship with former communications minister Stephen Conroy, media companies are heartened that his successor, Malcolm Turnbull, has made positive noises about relaxing Australia's media laws.

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Media: Old players may continue to rule but content will be king