The newspaper and magazine industry is facing a "massive shit sandwich" as consumers move away from paper titles to online, the head of StarcomMediavest has said.
Speaking at the Accountability in Ad Spend conference, John Sintras said Fairfax's $2.7bn loss only served to prove the point.
"The Fairfax news this morning helped quantify how big that shit sandwich is going to be," he said.
Sintras said while he loved newspapers and magazines in print, he was increasingly frustrated by the slow progress of change.
"I have become frustrated by the pace of change in print accountability. Progress just isn't fast enough'" he said.
"Change is less expensive than going out of business."
The Starcom boss also said that the industry measures currently being used were "blunt instruments" that "don't add much value". Sintras said the print industry needed to do "the job of proving what that (print) generates in the market.
At en earlier session News Limited boss Kim Williams said he was “frustrated” with the fixation on circulation figures.