News Corp Moves to Charge for On-Line Content: Major Newspapers Monitoring Results and Some Could Follow

This Wall Street Journal article provides an update regarding where News Corp is headed

News Corp.'s move to place its U.K. newspapers, the Times and the Sunday Times, behind a paywall in July has led to more than 105,000 readers paying for its content online.News Corp's U.K. newspaper division, News International Ltd., said Tuesday that around half of the 105,000 readers are monthly subscribers, including those to the digital sites and to the Times iPad app and Kindle edition. The others are either single copy or pay-as-you-go customers. News International said that about half of the 105,000 users signed up for the £2 ($3.20) per week subscription or the £9.95 a month version for the iPad or Amazon's Kindle. Readers can also access the site for £1 a day.

Look for other major newspapers to follow suit.

The numbers will be closely scrutinized by the newspaper industry, which is wrestling with how to deal with circulation declines and readers accustomed to finding free news on the Internet. Right now, The Wall Street Journal, which is also owned by News Corp., and the Financial Times are the only two major global newspapers that charge subscribers for their online content. Executives at the Times previously said they expected to lose 90% of the papers' online readers after the £2 a week charge came in.

News Corp usually wins: Witness the battle with Cablevision over increased fees for it's 3 million cable subscribers

James Murdoch, chairman and CEO of News Corp.'s European and Asia operations, said the company is "excited by the progress that we have made in a very short space of time.""This reinforces our belief that our journalism is valuable and that customers will respond to the investment, innovation and quality that are hallmarks of our titles and our company," he said in a statement.

About the Author: Ed Teixeira has over 35 years of franchise industry experience as a franchise executive and franchisee. He has served as a franchise executive in the c-store, manufacturing and home healthcare industries and has licensed franchises in Asia, Europe and South America. Ed operates FranchiseKnowHow  which provides information and advice to prospective and existing franchisees and franchisors. He publishes newsletters for the franchise community.