By the end the year, most Australian newspapers will be charging for the content they post online, following the success of leading business daily The Wall Street Journal and amid softening revenues for newspapers from print subscriptions and advertisements.

Global media conglomerate News Corporation's Australian unit, NEWS Ltd., said it will begin charging for online content published by The Australian and other mastheads. The Australian's paywall will be launched October and other mastheads like The Herald Sun and The Daily Telegraph, will require paid subscriptions in the following months.

Last week, Australian media company Fairfax Media Ltd. (FXJ), publisher of The Sydney Morning Herald, Sun-Herald, The Age and Sunday Age, announced it would also begin charging users to access parts of its website by the end of the year. Fairfax says it will offer three-tiered access model -- comprising free content, free content that is available for those customers who register to read it, and paid content. Fairfax's The Australian Financial Review is already behind a paywall. On May 31, Fairfax Media launched new iPad apps for the online editions of The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. The two new apps will be offered to consumers free of charge for six months as part of a sponsorship arrangement with Telstra, after which time they will cost up to $8.99 a month.

WSJ.com, owned by Dow Jones & Company, which is part of News Corp., is one of the first websites to be accessible only to paying users. With more than one million subscribers, WSJ is the largest paid subscription news site on the Internet.
Since Rupert Murdoch announced News Corp.'s intentions to launch digital subscriptions in 2009, at least 50 newspapers around the world have begun charging for online journalism. Recent publications to introduce digital subscriptions include The Times and Sunday Times of London and The New York Times. Both publications announced successful launches, with The Times and Sunday Times recently revealing that they are now growing overall print and digital circulation.

$2.95 per week

The chief executive of The Australian and News Digital Media, Richard Freudenstein, said The Australian will use a 'freemium' subscription model, offering a mix of free and subscription-only content across its digital properties. Non-subscribers will be able to read extensive general content across the website and m-site, but The Australian's large amount of unique, premium, content will only be available to subscribers.

Available digital subscription packages are:

* A full digital subscription giving access to The Australian's entire website, iPad and Android apps, and m-site will cost just $2.95 per week.

* New six-day print subscribers will also receive a full digital subscription, and pay just $7.95 a week.

* A full digital subscription plus The Weekend Australian print edition will be $4.50 a week.

* Existing six-day a week print subscribers, who pay $6.95 per week, will receive a complimentary digital subscription.

Mr. Freudenstein said that the introduction of digital subscriptions heralded the start of a new economic model for Australian newspapers.

"News Corporation's global business has been built on the strength of its content -- content that attracts, entertains, inspires and informs large audiences," Mr. Freudenstein said.

"The Australian is this country's best and most influential news brand. Every day editor Chris Mitchell and his team sets the news agenda with its world-class journalism. "We believe that The Australian journalism has real value online as well as in print, and extensive research suggests our readers agree.

Mr. Freudenstein said the introduction of subscription packages will not only open up a new and important revenue stream, but also "give us a much closer, more valuable, relationship with our most loyal and engaged readers."

To coincide with the introduction of digital subscriptions, The Australian will be launching a redesigned website and a new 'm-site', a site specifically designed for mobile phones.