In an effort to combat falling advertising revenue, News Corp. is reportedly in talks with other news publishers about forming an online consortium that would charge for news online and on portable devices.
A story in the Los Angeles Times Friday said News Corp.’s chief digital officer Jonathan Miller met with executives from New York Times Co., Washington Post Co., Hearst Corp. and Tribune Co.
News Corp. reportedly sees itself as a logical leader in the effort to collect fees from online readers because of its success with the Wall Street Journal’s website, which has more than 1 million paying subscribers.
News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch said earlier this year he would begin charging readers for online versions of his other titles including the London Times and the New York Post.
“We are now in the midst of an epochal debate over the value of content and it is clear to many newspapers that the current model is malfunctioning,” Murdoch told analysts in May.
The News Corp. plan is said to be similar to the Journalism Online venture unveiled in April by journalist and Yale journalism lecturer Steve Brill.
The e-commerce system will offer a single account for users to access all the member publishers’ websites and a range of payment options from pay-per-article, day passes and monthly and yearly subscriptions.
Last week Journalism Online said more than 500 newspapers and magazines have agreed to join the venture so far.
