A charge for content? Rupert Murdoch sees no problem

This isn’t a new idea. Rupert Murdoch has been expressing his wish to move towards it for some time. For him, it is one solution for financing quality information (read costly).

Anyone would think a publicity strategy was in place to prepare the way and soften reactions somewhat of those defenders of free news, free information. Although there is a charge for some online content, the owner of News Corp (Wall Street Journal, the Times,...) looks as if he might be about to open the door to charging and convert a good number of titles across as a solution to the current problems of profitability.

Finding a viable economic model is a priority for content sites as revenue generated by advertising no longer earns enough. In spite of this awareness, real added value will need to be found to convince users who have been accessing content free of charge over the internet for a decade and more and who are little enclined to change their habits.