Murdoch reiterates subscription plans

Still plans to charge for Times and Sun content

6 August 2009 15:36 GMT / By Duncan Geere

A few months back, Rupert Murdoch - the CEO of News Corp, which owns the Times and Sun newspapers - said he was planning to start charging for content on the websites of the Sun, The Times and the News of the World.

Well, he's talking about it again, following the news that his company lost $3.4 billion in the year to the end of June. He said it's been "the most difficult in recent history", but that he thought that he could generate "significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper content".

Almost all newspaper websites offer news free, supported by advertising. The exceptions are the Wall St Journal and the Financial Times, but there are workarounds for both to get the content without paying. A few other niche industry titles require subscriptions too.

To be able to compete against the other sites, Murdoch said that News Corp would just make its journalism "better and differentiate it from other people". However, response from consumers has been lukewarm, with one Pocket-lint commenter, "Mostly Harmless", saying "Mainstream papers like Murdoch's offer no such USPs, and people will just leave them for the wealth of alternative sources".

Via: news.bbc.co.uk

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