News Corp moves into second phase of paid-for launch

News Corporation has moved into the second phase of its plan to implement paid-for content across its news sites following internal research.

The company’s digital chief executive Richard Freudenstein sent an email to staff to say that research has been conducted in the UK, US and Australia and they are now ready to proceed to the next stage of development.

“News [Corp] has conducted some audience research in Australia and in the UK and US, which gives us confidence that, if we get the product and delivery system right, people will happily pay for news content online, on their computer, mobile, e-reader or other device,” Freudenstein said.

News Corporation’s chairman Rupert Murdoch announced plans to charge users for access to his newspaper websites, including the Sun, the News of the World and The Times, in June.

In response to the company’s $3.4 billion (£2 billion) net loss for the year to the end of June, Murdoch said the free model era was over.

At the time, he said: “Quality journalism is not cheap.  The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites.”

“I believe that if we’re successful, we’ll be followed fast by other media,” he added. “We’re certainly satisfied that we can produce significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper content.”

Earlier this month, Murdoch also announced plans to start charging Wall Street Journal readers for access to the title’s mobile reader application.

A WSJ mobile-only subscription will cost $2 a week, while a mobile subscription combined with either a print or online subscription will be $1 a week. Subscribers of both the print and online editions will receive free access to all subscription content on the mobile reader.