The Guardian is reporting that "Rupert Murdoch expects to start charging for access to New's Corporation's websites within a year". The man himself is quoted as saying:

"The current days of the internet will soon be over."
Rupert Murdoch

Big words. Also technically incorrect words. This may seem like a minor quibble but does show a lack of understanding of what he's talking about. Perhaps he thinks that people care enough about the content put out by his tabloids and broadsheets to pay for it via the web. I think that's a huge misjudgment and one I hope to witness given the general level of unpleasantness displayed by News Corporation's properties. They may try another tactic as there are rumours that they are planning to release a Kindle-like in a bid to get people paying subscriptions for content, which will inevitably mean trying to lock things down. News Corp has a track record of flailing around online, not really getting it and claiming otherwise. The takeover of MySpace was heralded in many quarters as a brilliant $580 million move based on a revenue model of being able to target adverts at users. Unfortunately they completely missed the point of why this works for Google but doesn't work so well for a social network.

Update: I guess News Corp's desire to develop their own Kindle-like device is driven by Amazon reportedly taking "70 percent of subscription revenue from newspapers" as well as the rights to republish articles to other devices from those who wish to use the Kindle platform.