Express sold to the world's only web-illiterate porn publisher

The papers' new owner, Richard Desmond, wants to slim down the organisation, and considers the loss-making websites as a good place to start with the financial scalpel. He plans to spend money previously earmarked for the web on the paper publications.

They have apparently eaten up £8m so far, while they are reported to have brought in only £100,000 in advertising - a pathetic amount given the paper's circulation. (It sells around a million copies, under half the amount of its main rival, the Daily Mail.)

But that's no excuse for Desmond's shortsightedness. He must be the only porn publisher alive who doesn't see the moneymaking potential of the internet.

If the Express is doing badly on the web, it is because it does the web badly. This should come as no surprise given the lacklustre performance of the paper titles. The Express has been sinking, but Desmond should look to the web as a potential saviour rather than a weight around its ankle.

Desmond will find that in the internet age, a print publication can rarely move fast enough to keep up with the pace of news. Stories will be day-old by the time they appear on the pages of the Express or the Daily Star, with only occasional exclusives to hold the readers' attention.

C'mon, Richard, stay in the game. Just think about the money to be made by charging users to download exclusive celebrity wedding videos.