News Corp to charge for online content this financial year

AAP General News (Australia)
08-06-2009
News Corp to charge for online content this financial year

By Leah McLennan

SYDNEY, Aug 6 AAP - 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," said News Corp's chairman and chief
executive Rupert Murdoch on a conference call on Thursday.

"We're thinking in terms of this financial year."

News Corp owns newspapers around the world but currently only charges for online access
to one website.

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

Mr 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 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", he 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 on Thursday posted a $US3.4 billion ($A4.03 billion) full year net loss,
down from a net profit of $US5.4 billion ($A6.4 billion) in the previous financial year,
after it was hit by the advertising downturn and impairment charges.

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

News Corp's newspapers and information services unit, which includes its newspapers
in the UK, US and Australia, posted a 41 per cent drop in operating income to $US466 million
($A554.7 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, reflecting lower
display and classified advertising, especially in the employment and real estate sectors.

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KEYWORD: NEWS CORP NEWSPAPERS

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