"I think if it wasn't Seek it would have been another company," he told Fairfax Media this week. "Twenty years ago when we were developing our original business plan we knew, if successful, Seek would disrupt the revenue model of newspapers that paid for journalists.

"There is no doubt that Seek and REA and CarSales and the advent of the internet has led to where we are today in terms of continual cuts [such as] in the case of Fairfax.

"It is not an outcome that we are happy about or take any joy in," Bassat adds.

Regrets, he has a few - but that doesn't mean the internet entrepreneur will emerge as a white knight for the industry.

Bassat said he had personally toyed with the idea of putting some of the online profits back into journalism by investing in traditional media, but maintained it wasn't the right fit for his online company Seek.

Co-founder of Carsales.com.au, Greg Roebuck, also regrets the "loss of ad revenue that Google and Facebook have taken away, off the back of the hard work from the Aussie journalists".

"I take no joy in the fact that the loss of classifieds revenue has resulted in impacts on journalism," he says.

"Carsales had numerous other competitors to compete with beyond just Fairfax - Trading Post and the ACP magazines to name two - the business was never about going after one particular business. With Fairfax at one stage being our second largest shareholder, it's disappointing they never took the next step to protect this key revenue stream."

Australia's print and television media have stayed alive by adjusting to leaner times, but the dehydrated industry is reaching its breaking point as demonstrated by more job cuts at Fairfax and News Corp, a private equity bid for Fairfax's Domain and three metropolitan papers, and rumours Network Ten may outsource its news production entirely.

Against this background Federal Communications Minister Mitch Fifield last week announced sweeping media law changes. His long-awaited proposed reforms have something for everyone and enjoy unprecedented industry-wide support, partly because no one can afford further delays. More and more revenue is heading online, often to global behemoths like Google and Facebook.

???But the government still has a fight on its hands to get the reforms through parliament. And Greens and Labor Senators announced a government inquiry into media content and consumption a few days ago.

Tuesday's Budget sought to appease an increasingly frustrated broadcast industry by cutting commercial television and radio licence fees, moving networks from an "outdated" model based on revenue to a "more modest" spectrum charge for the privilege of occupying broadcast signals.

Media shares surged on the announcement, but have since settled back down. And Ten still faces a large debt problem by year's end unless the billionaire board agrees to guarantee $250 million of debt.

Nine's chief executive, Hugh Marks, says "this total package tackles the various elements of media reform required for the industry to compete with global players in a rapidly changing media environment", and urged parliament to pass the entire bill.

Cutting licence fees will come at a cost to government, which usually raises around $130 million annually. It only expects $40 million from the new spectrum charge that is divided up between the broadcasters based on the number and power of transmitters and population reach.

Fifield hopes the licence fee savings will offset any losses from a crackdown on gambling ads during televised sports events.

Meanwhile Foxtel, which doesn't pay licence fees will receive a boon with the government dedicating $30 million over four years to support "the broadcast of under-represented sports on subscription television", which includes women's sport.

Foxtel also won a reduction to the anti-siphoning list that restricts which sports it can lock up behind a pay-wall.

The government remains committed to repealing media ownership rules including the reach rule, which prevents a single media owner broadcasting to more than 75 per cent of the population, and the two out of three rule, which stops a company or person from owning daily newspapers, radio stations and television stations in the same city.

Fairfax spokesman Gary O'Neill said industry support for the reform package showed the government's consultation approach was working.

"At the moment you have got to say that is about the most comprehensive package that the industry could get, and I think the industry has embraced it," he told BusinessDay.

Senate inquiry

However, as a major newspaper company, albeit with some radio assets, Fairfax is not affected by most of the bill. The only element that could significantly change Fairfax's future is scrapping the two-out-of-three rule, because it could then buy - or merge or be bought by - companies with television assets.

The future of Fifield's bill, which has not yet been drafted or introduced, appears to be in the hands of the cross bench because Labor will not scrap the two out of three rule. Labor gave its backhanded support by announcing the government was "playing catch-up with Labor".

Opposition Communications spokeswoman Michelle Rowland says the case was not quite there for Labor to support "scrapping an important diversity safeguard". Traditional media outlets - radio, commercial television and newspapers - continue to be the main source of news for Australians. Both Labor and Greens have concerns about Australia's concentrated media market.

The new Senate inquiry pushed by her colleague Sam Dastyari and supported by the Greens and members of the cross bench, will seek to investigate the Australian media landscape, and how changes in consumption trends have altered it.

The future of the public interest journalism inquiry is yet to be voted on by the Senate and has proposed to examine a number of issues, including whether the competition and consumers laws are adequate, while also balancing the impact of 'fake news'.

The inquiry's wide net is indicative of the multiple and swift moving challenges faced by the industry and a government struggling to keep up.

Managing director of Fusion Strategy, Steve Allen, says Labor's position is primarily based on fears Rupert Murdoch will buy everything.

"Labor has had a phobia for 30 or more years about News Corp," Allen says. "They have always had a view that the big end of town, which they count all the media in, doesn't support them. They are paranoid ... that there would be further concentration and that that would not assist politically at election time."

Minister 'does not seem to be an idiot'

The industry's unity comes from Fifield's deft packing, he adds.

"Mitch Fifield does not seem to be an idiot. He seems to be quite methodical. Clearly he has discussed this with every player and they know what is coming," Allen says.

Listen closely and death rattles keep coming from the fourth estate.

Fairfax Media wants to cut 115 staff - about 25 per cent - from The Age and Sydney Morning Herald newsrooms before July. And after weeks of speculation, Texas Pacific Group [TPG] and the Ontario Teachers Pension Plan made an official $2.2 billion bid for these two mastheads, plus the Australian Financial Review, and online real estate site Domain. It wants to roll the newspapers into a new privately owned company called Domain Co, and leave Fairfax shareholders with regional media, radio, and Stan.

Meanwhile, News Corp published financial results showing its international suite of newspapers is still profitable, but margins are razor thin compared to its 62 per cent stake in online real estate business REA Group.

News spent $US85 million on redundancies in the nine months to March 31 across Australia, the UK and US. News has also set aside up to $US43 million on restructuring costs at Dow Jones, which produces The Wall Street Journal. It is preparing to shut down foreign bureaus in Europe and lay off staff in the US.

Locally up to 46 News Corp photographers are expected to be made redundant in coming months, with at least 40 per cent forced redundancies, according to the journalists' union. Its report also notes that the goodwill and certain intangible assets in the news and cable segments (which consists of FoxSports and Sky News), currently valued at $US2.4 billion, is "at risk for future impairments".