Even the mighty Washington Post is, she says, losing circulation month after month as more and more of the younger generation get their news online. "I am a magazine junkie, but I have to say I am downloading much more individual articles rather than going out to buy the magazines," says Brown, who believes publications are being damaged by the internet because of the absence of a workable financial online model.

What does Sir Harry think? "He thinks it's a real transition, a real problem, and newspapers seem to be the most damaged," she says. "I think we are going to get to a situation where you will have to accept a much smaller number of that core newspaper audience and another economic model has to make the rest of it viable.'"