Rupert Murdoch: You'll Have To Pay To View My News Sites

Rupert Murdoch, the largest owner of newspapers worldwide, says he plans to begin charging for access to all of their websites by next year.

Stung by a collapse in advertising revenue as the recession shredded Fleet Street's traditional business model, Murdoch declared that the era of a free-for-all in online news was over. "Quality journalism is not cheap," said Murdoch. "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." The Australian-born press and television baron was speaking as his News Corporation holding company slumped to a $3.4bn (£2bn) net loss for the financial year to June, hit by huge writedowns in the value of its assets, restructuring charges and a dive in commercial revenue. Murdoch's newspaper holdings span the globe, from the Australian to the Wall Street Journal and to his News International stable in London. At present, only the Wall Street Journal charges a fee for online access and until recently, received wisdom in the publishing industry was that readers would not pay to read newspapers on the internet.

Yesterday Murdoch's News Corp posted a $203M fourth quarter loss which was largely driven by the declining MySpace.