Murdoch newspaper sites to start charging by next summer

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 6 Aug 2009 at 09:37

Rupert Murdoch says all his news websites will start charging for access from next summer.

The News Corp boss claims the days of free access to news from The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and The News of the World must come to an end.

"Quality journalism is not cheap," Murdoch claims. "The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites."

The move comes after News Corp reported a $2 billion net loss for the year to June, amid a huge global downturn in advertising revenue.

However, it's highly questionable whether News Corp can replace the lost revenue by charging for content.

With sites such as the BBC, not to mention the rest of Britain's newspapers, pumping out news content for free, Murdoch's newspapers may have a tough job persuading readers that their news is worth paying extra for.

The introduction of subscriptions will also inevitably lead to a huge reduction in traffic, which could harm the firm's web advertising revenue.

The Sun Online (which includes content from The News of the World) boasted over 25 million unique users in June, while Times Online (which incorporates Sunday Times content) had in excess of 21 million.

Murdoch predicts that other sites will follow his lead. "I believe that if we're successful, we'll be followed fast by other media," the News Corp boss claims.

And Murdoch warns that the company will clamp down aggressively on sites that attempt to copy News Corp's stories. "We'll be asserting our copyright at every point," he says.