Newspapers across Britain (and elsewhere in the developed world) are closing by the month. Those that survive are cutting back on editorial staff, so the journalistic community is diminishing fast. Although newspaper company online platforms are racking up big numbers of readers, the newspaper business model, which depends on advertising revenue, has been wrecked. Newsprint pounds have been replaced by digital pennies. So the future looks bleak. Hoped-for replacements, whether they be hyperlocal start-ups or centralised national outlets, have not yet built sufficient audiences and/or income to fund journalism. We are facing an existential crisis. Anxious newspaper publishers are calling for help from the behemoths of Silicon Valley, such as Google and Facebook, to help sustain journalism. They argue that these digital giants are guilty of stealing their employees’ work; the news, comment and analysis originated by newspaper journalists. Will they help? Should they help? And will they act fast enough to save journalism? Does the future of the world’s leading search engine (Google) and the world’s leading social media platform (Facebook) depend on rescuing old media?