News Corporation director James Murdoch has slammed the British Library's decision to digitise its newspaper archives saying it will "harm the market" in print journalism.

Speaking at the launch of University College London's centre for digital humanities, Murdoch argued that by digitising the archived content, the Library is stopping newspapers from commercialising their copyrighted material.

The heir to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp business empire said the Library's digital project is not merely "for posterity, nor to make free access for library users easier, but also for commercial gain via a paid-for website".

Murdoch was concerned that the Library's move could undermine the paid-for-content model, to be launched by News International for online access to the Times and Sunday Times starting next month. He added that many publishers would oppose this move.

Murdoch confirmed that News International is in discussions with Google over sharing revenues generated through the web company's use of their content in searches.