The Economist to charge for online news content

The Economist plans to start charging readers for access to its online news content in a bid to keep pace with News Corporation, which is set to introduce a paid-for model for access to its news websites including The Sun and The Times.

At the moment, readers can access free news content on Economist.com, which includes the content from its £4 weekly magazine, unless it is more than a year old.

However, The Economist is now thought to be looking at a number of payment options for the website, including a micro-payment model similar to the one used by iTunes.

Last month, Rupert Murdoch announced plans to implement a paid-for model for access to his news websites by next summer.

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

“Quality journalism is not cheap,” he said. “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.”

At the time, Murdoch said he is willing to take the risk of leading the industry towards a new model.

“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.”

The Financial Times decided to follow Murdoch’s lead and launch a pay-per-view model for access to the FT.com just days later.

Yvonne Ossman, publisher of The Economist in the UK, said: “Murdoch’s move is welcome.  Newspapers are losing out to free content online and people will pay for analysis and debate.”

The Economist‘s new move marks a u-turn for the title, which switched to a predominantly free model in 2007.