Online Wall Street Journal goes sub free

Rupert Murdoch plans to give away the digital version of The Wall Street Journal for free, making News Corp the latest company to steer away from paid subscriptions.

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Murdoch, quoted by the Associated Press (AP) as he spoke to a group of investors in Australia, said: "We are studying it and we expect to make that free." He said "instead of having one million [subscribers]", the company will receive readers "in every corner of the earth".

Murdoch is hoping a free model for WSJ.com - which recently announced it had topped the one-million-subscriber mark - will send readership skyrocketing and cause advertisers to flock to the site.

According to the AP, the WSJ's subscribers generated about $50m in annual revenue.

Few online services have made paid subscriptions successful but the WSJ was widely considered to be at the head of the pack. In September, The New York Times stopped trying to sell subscriptions to premium content.

Greg Sandoval writes for CNET News.com