[Previous entry: "Australian aboriginal children beat white man to a pulp as he has no cigarettes"] [Next entry: "Jew shocked by drop in Americans who believe Jews run Hollywood"]

05/09/2009: "Rupert Murdoch says having free newspaper websites is a 'flawed' business model"

Rupert ­Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a ­"malfunctioning" business model.

Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge. "That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience," he said.

Asked whether he envisaged fees at his British papers such as the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World, he replied: "We're absolutely looking at that." Taking questions on a conference call with reporters and analysts, he said that moves could begin "within the next 12 months‚" adding: "The current days of the internet will soon be over."

[ If all the major news sources on the internet start charging for content it will mean people will look for alternatives that are free. I wonder if Murdoch has really thought through the implications of that! This will result in less influence from the MSM on where the public gets its information. That last sentence quoted sounds sinister however. I wonder what censorship he is planning. ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/may/07/rupert-murdoch-charging-websites