News Corp to charge for online content

Rupert Murdoch says News Corp will start charging for access to the global media group's online news content after the success of the Wall Street Journal's subscription website.

"We intend to charge for all our news websites," Murdoch said yesterday. "We're thinking in terms of this financial year."

News Corp owns newspaper, broadcasting and internet assets around the world, but currently only charges for online access to one website.

Its large Australian newspaper stable includes Melbourne's Herald Sun, Sydney's Daily Telegraph and the nation's only national newspaper, the Australian.

In New Zealand, News Corp owns 44 per cent of Sky Television.

Murdoch said News Corp was working with software and hardware developers and other publishers to develop a model that worked for consumers.

"Quality journalism is not cheap and an industry that gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce good reporting," he said.

"The increase we have seen in our Wall Street Journal subscription proves to me that the market is willing to pay for that quality."

The traditional newspaper business model had to change rapidly, he said. But closing newspapers was "not a prospect at the moment".

"The tumultuous and unprecedented change affecting the whole media sector, in particular newspapers and free-to-air broadcasters, cannot be ignored.

"Classified advertising revenues will never again reach the levels that print once offered."

To stop readers simply migrating to the free news websites of rivals, News Corp would "just make our content better and differentiate it from other people", Murdoch said.

"We're certainly satisfied that we can produce significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper content. I believe if we're successful we will be followed by other people."

News Corp yesterday posted a US$3.4 billion ($5 billion) full-year net loss, down from a net profit of US$5.4 billion in the previous financial year, after it was hit by the advertising downturn and impairment charges.

The company lost US$203 million in the latest quarter, to June 30, due to a huge writedown at MySpace.

But the media giant said the worst of the economic downturn may have ended and it was "poised to profit and deliver strong returns as the economy rebounds".

Results for the quarter narrowly beat analyst expectations and shares rose.

News Corp's newspapers and information services unit, which includes its newspapers in Britain, the United States and Australia, posted a 41 per cent drop in operating income to US$466 million for 2008-09.

The Australian newspaper group reported full-year operating income decreases following a 10 per cent decline in advertising revenue in local currency terms, especially in the employment and real estate sectors.

- AAP