He said he felt the Labour government thought having a good relationship with some newspapers was "well worth doing".
Earlier former Heritage Secretary Stephen Dorrell told the inquiry into press ethics he explored ways of "doing nothing" about proposed privacy laws.
Ex-Labour minister Lord Reid and the BBC's Jeremy Paxman will speak later.
The inquiry into press standards is looking into the relationship between politicians and the media.
'In the wilderness'Mr Marr said he believed the Labour government thought it was important to have a positive relationship with News International titles as well as newspapers such as the Mirror and the Guardian.
But he said reporters from some papers, such as the Daily Telegraph, found themselves "out in the wilderness".
He also said the rise of internet news had meant people did not buy newspapers to simply find out what had happened and papers had adapted and now looked to get readers "emotionally engaged in the news".
Mr Marr said he "mourned" the old distinction between news and comment but thought there was "no going back".
'Do nothing option'Earlier the inquiry heard from Conservative MP Stephen Dorrell, who was national heritage secretary in the mid-90s under John Major, and has responsibility for media policy.
Mr Dorrell told the inquiry the government at the time preferred to avoid statutory regulation of the press and said he was "personally hostile for any proposal for official regulation of freedom of expression".
He said when privacy laws were suggested, the government explored ways of "doing nothing" about it and he was asked to "dress up a do nothing option".
And he said was not in favour of having government policy determined by press coverage but also not in favour of having policy set out "blind to press coverage".
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