Newspaper Industry Decline, Charging For Content | featured news

The New York Times rolled out a plan on Thursday to begin charging the most frequent users of its Web site $15 a month in a bet that readers would pay for news they have grown accustomed to getting free.

The Times of London has been hemorrhaging online readers since erecting a paywall three months ago, according to data released today.

Starting in early 2011, visitors to NYTimes.com will get a certain number of articles free every month before being asked to pay a flat fee for access.

According to internal sources, the New York Times may soon be charging users for its online content. In a move that would bring the publication parallel to the Wall Street Journal, NPR, and the Financial Times, the New York Times seems to have settled on a system that would allow online readers to sample a certain amount of content before being prompted to subscribe.

Newsday will become one of a handful of U.S. newspapers to charge readers for access to its Web site, in what may be a sign of things to come for a troubled industry.