The driving force behind Netscape, Ning and many other Web brands has some advice for old media: Just "burn the boats." In other words, spend time discovering and sever the link with the past.

Marc Andreessen sees little point in sustaining newspapers, for instance. Newsrooms should simply shift to digital delivery, he asserts, even if it means leaving behind 80% (that is an underestimate on his part) of the revenue and headcount.

There is little reason to expend effort on paywalls or delivery of the same look and feel to such devices as the iPad for a fee. It's time to realize the Web is free and that content shouldn't be anything other than that, he argues.

If old media won't burn the boats, someone else will, he says.