Former FT editor Andrew Gowers has a new gig as a columnist for the London Evening Standard.

In his debut, Gowers is scathing about British newspapers’ denial about how the internet is changing journalism.

Gowers writes that he would refuse any future offers to edit another paper because “working in print, pure and simple, is the 21st-century equivalent of running a record company specialising in vinyl”.

He attacks Rupert Murdoch for paying lip service to understanding the web while investing in costly new printing presses and DVD giveaways to gain tiny increases in circulation at the Times and recounts an encounter with an executive at a major technology company who gets all his news from Yahoo! Finance:

My broader point is: the number of British newspaper outfits that have something unique to offer on the web in a global marketplace for new and comment can be counted on the fingers of one hand.

I wonder if he would count the Standard’s own site among them. In a nice touch of irony, the piece doesn’t appear to be anywhere on their awful ThisIsLondon site.