Will you pay to read news online?

Will you pay to read news online?

Media mogul Rupert Murdoch says that News Corp will start charging for online access to its newspapers within the next year.

August 6, 2009 2:49 by Aarti Nagraj

“The digital revolution has not made content free,” said Rupert Murdoch. The chairman of News Corp was announcing plans to begin charging readers to access the online editions of all his newspapers and television channels, a move expected to take place within the next 12 months.

“An industry that gives away its content is cannibalizing its ability to do good reporting,” Murdoch said. “Our policy is to win and we will make our content better and differentiate it from other people. If we’re successful, we’ll be followed by other media.”

He made the announcement as News Corp declared a $203 million loss for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year ended June 30, with revenues during the period dropping around 11 percent. The loss was largely due to a $680 million write-down on its MySpace business. During the same period last year News Corp made a profit of $1.1 billion.

For the full financial year, the company made a net loss of $3.38 billion, compared to a profit of $5.4 billion in the previous year.

While Murdoch has not yet given any indication how much online users will be charged, the European online edition of The Wall Street Journal (owned by News Corp’s Dow Jones unit) currently charges $1.99 per week for some of its content.

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Tags: charge, Financial Crisis, murdoch, News Corp, newspapers, online access, paid, website

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4 Comments

Thomas Bew on August 6, 2009 10:42 pm

wow, this is bad news for all the people reading the news now…soon blogs will officially take over..
Basel A-Shaban on August 8, 2009 6:30 am

The digital revolution has offered and continues to offer tremendously high number of information and credible news sources. Rupert Murdoch may choose to charge for his online media sources, I choose not to pay and will move on to another online news provider that will not charge me. Sometime at the end of 1990s, a well known newspaper published in the USA that offered online news service started charging there readers for accessing their online services. The idea did not score will with people and this known news sources lost the mass majority of their online readers. Compotators who maintain offering their free access to online news services gain additional customers that caused additional hits which lead to additional ads to be places therefore, making more money. It easy to lose a customer, but it is hard to getting him back (if this customer ever comes back). Rupert Murdoch may choose to charges fees however, we have options. Oh, by the way, this known online newspaper services in the USA went back to free online services unfortunately, the damage has been done.
Amin on August 8, 2009 10:44 am

Sorry, Murdoch….Onliners are a different pysche-consumerts…You need to rethink, reinvent ur past strategies…Please do that lest another business empire, like many others in past, fade from glory…
All the Best !
Dima on August 17, 2009 8:21 am

What does Murdoch think? Just because there are high profile people who read say for example The Gaurdian or Bloomberg online does NOT mean they will pay for it. They will all go to other sources. No matter what you do to make your news agency look the best, people will ALWAYS find a way to use something other than a resource which was free!