Rupert Murdoch is making news this week, having announced that henceforth - at least by summer 2010, all of his publications and television news channels will charge for web content. In May, said the Fiancial Times (www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7f6edc2c-821f-11de-9c5e-00144feabdc0.html) his company had planned to test pay models at its stronger properties. According to The Guardian (www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/rupert-murdoch-website-charges) Murdoch said that after reviewing the possibility of charging, he had decided he was willing to risk leading the industry in a pay-per-view-model. "We're certainly satisfied that we can produce significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper content," he said. However, he anticipates competition from the BBC, which provides its online news without charge.
Murdoch's announcement comes on the heels of a 14-percent drop in his British newspapers' year-end advertising revenue, and an across-the-board fall in global newspaper revenue from US$ 786 million to US$ 466 million. On top of that, said the Guardian, his "empire was hit by huge reorganisation costs and write-downs at its interactive media division," including MySpace, the social networking website.
