If you"re a reader of The Sun, The Times or the Wall Street Journal, or if you just do most of your news reading online, there"s a strong possibility you"ve stumbled upon a news website run by News Corp.
You"ve probably accessed News Corp"s online equivalents of their newspapers for free before, but if Rupert Murdoch has it his way, all of that will change. According to an article from the BBC, News Corp is looking for new ways to bring in the cash, having made large losses this year, and charging for their online news websites is one of them.
Rupert Murdoch, chairman of News Corp, said "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". He added, "quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting."
Subscription models are nothing new: numerous news websites have used them before. However, some believe that the media companies decision will lead others to follow suit.
It seems News Corp is looking to avoid making another £2 billion net loss this financial year, although Rupert Murdoch is still sitting comfortably high in the Forbes 400 list. While the company owns some of the most popular newspapers in the UK, US and Australia, some people have doubts that the subscription model will succeed, with such a large amount of free news websites available on the net. According to the BBC article, Rupert believes that charging users between 5-10p per article could be successful.