Well, I said Murdoch was keen. Today he has declared that he will be charging for access to all of his news websites by next summer.

The story reports:

The charging model will be extended to red-top tabloids such as the Sun and the News of the World. Murdoch said he was keen to capitalise on the popularity of celebrity stories: “When we have a celebrity scoop, the number of hits we get now are astronomical.”

So, as suspected, celebrity gossip and ‘news’ will be the biggest pulling factor for The Sun. Murdoch believes that people will pay The Sun for exclusive access to pictures, videos and stories about celebrities. But how long will each story stay “exclusive”? Murdoch says that he will clamp down on breaches of copyright, but will that be enough? All it takes is one anonymous blogger with a subscription to rip all the media from the site. Actually, I’m sure there would be quite a few people doing it. Not only that but they’d probably rip the story straight off too. So why would people pay The Sun when a google search could bring up a few blogs that are dishing it all out for free?

Another thing is The Sun will be relying on the contacts of its celebrity ‘journalists’ to bring home the bacon. But what if these canny people buggered off somewhere else? Maybe started up their own website – for free? The profit from dwindling advertising revenue may not be enough for Murdoch, but it could certainly be enough for a couple of journalists and paps running a website. Perhaps even if they jumped ship to a rival who was still offering free content, removing The Sun’s top-dog status as celebrity know-it-alls.

Then again, Murdoch said he was “willing to take the risk” on charging for online content. So, maybe it will pay off? I’m dubious.