It cannot be ignored that both print and online publications rely heavily on an ad-based business model. However, as advertising is typically one of the first casualties of the recession, it is perhaps rather shrewd of Murdoch to raise the issue of charging for online content. The pros and cons were covered very well today in The Guardian, but many questions remain unanswered:

-    How can you make people charge for something that they are used to getting for free?
-    How will newspaper sites be able to compete with free sites like the BBC?

However, it is worth noting that people still pay for newspapers over the free dailies – so there is scope for co-existence. Perhaps the best model to look at is FT.com, whereby the user must pay for content after accessing a certain number of articles for free. WSJ also has a profitable pay-per-view model.

So, how can we as PRs benefit? Well let’s face it; it’s highly unlikely the average consumer will pay for content. It is more probable that the online pricing models will be geared towards business subscriptions – meaning more business content. Its my theory and I’m sticking to it….