Rupert Murdoch has announced that News Corp will potentially charge for access to its newspapers’ online content.

Signalling a significant change in the British media industry, Rupert Murdoch yesterday (5 August) announced that News Corporation will charge for access to its online newspaper content from June 2010.

Chairman and CEO of the company, Murdoch made the announcement at News Corp’s full-year earnings meeting, and stated that readers of News Corp’s newspapers could expect to pay for access to content from the end of the company’s fiscal year (June).

Among the newspapers owned by News Corp are The Sun, The Times, and News of the World. The corporation also owns the Fox Broadcasting Company and has significant holdings in BSkyB.

Murdoch commented on the charges: “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.

“Our policy is to win and we will make our content better and differentiate it from other people. If we’re successful, we’ll be followed by other media.”

The proposed charge comes as reports show that the newspaper industry has experienced a severe decline in the number of companies choosing to advertise with them – News Corp has reported a 14% drop in its advertising incomes.

“The past year has been the most difficult in recent history, and our 2009 financial performance clearly reflects the weak economic environment that we confronted throughout the year. We streamlined all our businesses and continue to do so, at the same time adjusting to the revolutionary changes taking place throughout the media industry,” said Murdoch.

Currently, the Wall Street Journal newspaper charges for access to its online content – starting from US$1.99 per week for a year’s subscription – along with the Financial Times website, which has various levels of subscription.

According to the Daily Telegraph, Murdoch went on to say that the only “free competition in the UK is likely to come from the BBC”.