Can he buck the market?  As newspaper revenues crumble, Murdoch says he will charge for online news.  Guido’s hunch is that even if that becomes widespread this will not save the newspaper industry.  It is like the plan by canal owners of old to use the new railway trains to pull their barges along.  Rupert will lose a lot of eyeballs and the advertising revenue that goes with that, niche market media (like this blog) will soak up mass market audiences that will not be willing to climb the paywall.  This is a mis-step from the maestro.  Bring it on…

Will however be fun to find out how much revenue columnists earn when they are charged out for pennies per reader for their insights – Michael Gove forinstance might not be such a draw after all.  Will he earn back for Murdoch the £1,250 per hour he charges him for those Times columns?  That is a lot of micro-payments…