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Could this be the end of news as we know it?



News Corp is set to change the way we know news. If plans that Murdoch has for his websites go ahead, it will be goodbye to free news, as they are set to start charging customers across all of their websites.

News Corp are looking for ways to recoup their losses, after they announced that the company lost GBP£2 billion in the year up until June. Chief Executive, Rupert Murdoch, has said, that it's been "the most difficult in history."

The loss, due to GBP£5.28 billion in write-downs already announced, compared with a GBP£3.20 billion profit a year earlier.

Revenues at News Corp, which owns BSkyB and 20th Century Fox, fell 7.8 percent. As well as these companies, News Corp also owns The Times and The Sun newspapers in the UK, and also The New York Post and Wall Street Journal in the US.

Mr Murdoch said he was "satisfied" that the company could produce "Significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper content. The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution. The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive methods of distribution." He added that the they intend to charge for all of their news websites, and he believes that if the plan is a success, then other companies will follow suit. Murdoch insisted that quality media is not cheap, and that people are willing to pay for news if it offers insightful and original perspectives.

In order to stop readers from moving to the huge number of free news websites, Mr Murdoch said News Corp would simply make its content "better and differentiate it from other people".In the time of a recession though, will people pay to read news, even if it is of a high quality? All we can do is sit back and see what happens. Murdoch's plan may work, or other news websites could see themselves gaining thousands more visitors. Only time will tell.

 

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