News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch

[babylonsister]

News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch

Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul


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."

Plunging earnings from newspapers led the way downwards as News Corporation's quarterly operating profits slumped by 47% to $755m, although exceptional gains on sale of assets boosted bottom-line pretax profits to $1.7bn, in line with last year's figure.

Dwindling advertising revenue across print and television divisions depressed the News Corp numbers despite box office receipts from Twentieth Century Fox movies such as Slumdog Millionaire and Marley and Me. But Murdoch said he believed signs of hope were appearing.

"I'm not an economist and we all know economists were created to make weather forecasters look good," he quipped. "But it is increasingly clear the worst is over."

He continued: "There are encouraging signs in some of our businesses that the days of precipitous declines are done, and things are beginning to look healthier."

News Corp's newspaper division barely broke even, with quarterly profits collapsing from $216m to $7m year-on-year. Advertising revenue in Britain fell by 21% and Murdoch revealed the Sunday Times is struggling: "It's still in profit, but only just so." The tabloids had fared better, aided by price battles at supermarkets which spend heavily on print promotions.

more...

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

[KharmaTrain]

1. That Model Sure Worked Well For The New York Times...

Go for it Rupert...take your "material" off the web (no great loss) and let your competitors get all the traffic. It'd be the greatest thing he'd ever done for journalism.

[ixion]

2. Yeah, that worked out so well for the NYTimes,

that they dumped it.

WSJ is a different beast than most rags, always has been.

Good luck with that, Rupert.

[elizfeelinggreat]

3. Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul

What free internet?

Another example of someone who doesn't live in the real world.

[Uben]

4. Money fer nuthin

Good! We will love watchin them fail!

[leveymg]

5. Murdoch is going to kill WSJ and The Financial Times

That way, removing two sets of eyes that still watch the financial sector. The NYT has already effectively stopped investigative journalism in its business coverage.