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News Corp Will Charge For Newspaper Websites

suraj.sun writes "Rupert Murdoch says having free newspaper websites is a 'flawed' business model. Rupert Murdoch expects to start charging for access to News Corporation's newspaper websites within a year as he strives to fix a 'malfunctioning' business model. Encouraged by booming online subscription revenues at the Wall Street Journal, the billionaire media mogul last night said that papers were going through an 'epochal' debate over whether to charge. 'That it is possible to charge for content on the web is obvious from the Wall Street Journal's experience,' he said."

12 of 453 comments (clear)

  1. Screw them by vivek7006 · · Score: 5, Informative

    WSJ gives free access to premium content if you are being redirected from google, facebook, digg etc. Here is a dirty little secret. The entire content on WSJ is available to you for free, if you can trick WSJ into believing that you have been directed to their webpage via digg.com!

    Step1) Use firefox
    Step2) Install refspoof http://refspoof.mozdev.org/
    Step3) Install greasemonkey https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748
    Step4) Install this script in greasemonkey http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/42134
    Step5) Profit!!

    1. Re:Screw them by MightyYar · · Score: 5, Informative

      If you don't want to install that stuff, and you come upon WSJ articles infrequently then there is another trick:
      1. Click on the regular "for-pay" link.
      2. When you get to the irritating half-article thing, just cut the link from the toolbar.
      3. Paste it into a google search.
      4. Click on the first link that comes up and read the whole article.

      --
      W..w..W - Willy Waterloo washes Warren Wiggins who is washing Waldo Woo.
  2. Go right ahead by Beetle+B. · · Score: 1, Informative

    Please, oh please do so, Mr Murdoch. Because I really want as much of your business as possible to fail.

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    Beetle B.
  3. Re:The P0rn option... by digitalgiblet · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wikipedia started out as total crap.

    Britannica was brilliant.

    So how do you explain the shift from one to the other?

    People are satisfied with the FREE version if they perceive it as a) X% as good as the non-free alternative (feel free to insert whatever percentage you think is correct) and b) more convenient.

    EVEN if Britannica had been free, but required registration and log in to access, I believe people would have moved to Wikipedia because it was MORE convenient.

  4. Re:Another smart move from the movers and shakers. by alen · · Score: 2, Informative

    The D section of the WSJ still has original stories. Becky Quick who is now on CNBC used to write there some years back. all her stories were orginal and not AP reprints

  5. Re:Another smart move from the movers and shakers. by jonbryce · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Financial Times is essentially the British version of the Wall Street Journal. Different publisher, but it covers the same niche in a different geographical market.

  6. Re:the sad thing is by gx5000 · · Score: 3, Informative

    You nutbowls are letting them label you everyday... The Left, the Right, Liberal,conservative...enough already... We all have values that span the whole gamut... Calling yourself any of these is surrendering your freedom of choice. That being said, it's OK to be a conservative and hate Rush and Billo, because they're idiots, and like Olbermann because at least he does his research. But joining in just because ? It's all a game, just make sure you're not with the loons on either side of the argument.

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    End of Line.
  7. Re:the sad thing is by AB3A · · Score: 1, Informative

    Love him or hate him, Rupert Murdoch is no fool. If anyone can make that concept work, he'd be one to do it.

    And you're welcome to call it Faux News all you want to. Get off your high horse and realize that as much as you don't like this or that media outlet, they all have offices filled with people who spin stories one way or another.

    They're called editors.

    --
    Nearly fifty percent of all graduates come from the bottom half of the class!
  8. Re:Another smart move from the movers and shakers. by MarkRose · · Score: 2, Informative

    Part of the problem is the obscenely high rates newspapers charge for ads on their websites. Where I work, we do media buys, and often get quoted prices over $10 CPM. With click-through rates usually under 0.2%, the advertising is ridiculously over-priced -- so no one who doesn't have very deep pockets buys it. I imagine most of their advertising is remenant ads bought in bulk by large corporations.

    --
    Be relentless!
  9. Re:WSJ by Kozar_The_Malignant · · Score: 4, Informative

    The thing with the Wall Street Journal is that most of the subscriptions are directly paid by companies or else put on the subscribers expense account.

    [citation needed]

    OK

    --
    Some mornings it's hardly worth chewing through the restraints to get out of bed.
  10. Re:Another smart move from the movers and shakers. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Economist, which is also read by people who have money to spend, used to charge for online access, now all the articles are available for free (the complete print edition).

  11. Re:the sad thing is by niktemadur · · Score: 3, Informative

    The only channel that provides both the "big government is the only solution" and the "government is the problem" viewpoints.

    Ah yes, "big government is the only solution" as long as republicans controlled Congress and the White House, then "government is the problem" the moment Obama took office.

    Yes, the channel that:
    1. Cut its' teeth perfecting the propagandist ad hominem attack on Bill Clinton.
    2. Led the media charge in subverting the 2000 presidential election.
    3. Shifted gears by endlessly repeating that criticizing the president is unpatriotic (USA - love it or leave it).
    4. Distorted public perception of Kerry in 2004 by attempting to ridicule him at every opportunity, via ad hominem attacks, of course.
    5. Attacks the current president at every opportunity, organizes nonsensical, astroturf tea bag protests and openly talks of insurrection and state secession, because now, by their own amnesiac and twisted logic, it's patriotic to be unpatriotic, I guess.

    Now, if someone like Olbermann or Maddow had their show on Faux (and in prime time, as opposed to buried in the 3am slot), I would concede your point, but having a mousy, token pseudo-progressive like Alan Colmes, who willingly and meekly took nightly prime-time punishment at the hands of Hannity, Coulter, Malkin, Ingraham, etc, is not a sincere execution of representing all viewpoints.

    In fact, it only makes the incredible shrinking Faux audience reinforce their misguided belief on at least two fronts:
    1. Them lib'ruls are creepy looking academia types in tweed...
    2. ...who consider illogical, hysterical talking points such as "Is Kerry a flip flopper?", "Some people say that the latest Bin Laden tape is an endorsement to Kerry", as legitimate and debatable.

    And then, they hire Karl Rove, of all people, the prince of fucking darkness itself, as one of their payroll spinmeisters.

    Make no mistake about it, Faux was not designed to be a money making operation in and of itself, but to push an extreme right wing agenda, to create a climate where even centrists (such as Clinton, Kerry and Obama) are tagged with that tired old canard, pinko communists.

    Well, no mass media corporation has lost more money in the current socio-economic climate as News Corp. I must admit, to see it collapse along with Clear Channel, who recently laid off 3000 employees while simultaneously extending Limbaugh's contract for over 200 million dollars, will create the most satisfying sense of schadenfreude, along with returning some sanity to public discourse in the airwaves.

    Other channels like CNN or NBC sound like they are personal spokespersons for Speaker Pelosi.

    Sad but true. I'll chip in state that you forgot the do-nothing, good-for-nothing gentleman from Nevada, Harry Reid. Yes, the system is broken and needs a spectacular shock, such as a grass roots, legitimate third party to fearlessly challenge the corporate lobbyist paradigm in Washington. In the meantime, however, in this seriously flawed world, I'll take Pelosi over Tom Delay as Speaker Of The House any day of the week.

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    Lil' Thindime, lilting a lacrimose lament, krashes the kwaint konfines of Kokonino Kounty