Murdoch's War on the Internet

In an article by Michael Wolf in Vanity Fair (Nov 09) Murdoch's plan to charge for online news was questioned and somewhat laughed at. Wolf stated that "Almost all Internet professionals, on the other hand, think that charging for general-interest news online is fanciful". Emily Bell who runs the Guardian's web site called the idea, “Rubbish, bonkers, a crock , a form of madness.” Bell also said that the idea has been tried before, and failed. Newspapers such as The New York Times trialled a subscription charge for its columns but later declared itself free again.

I, personally, think its a brilliant idea, and one that if implemented with the initial arrival of online news, may have saved the newspaper industry from cut-backs and losses. Murdoch is an old-fashioned business man, who argues with his Google friends about why they don't read newspapers anymore. If he wants his papers to return to their prime, he needs to go to war with the Internet. The Internet is the leading threat to newspaper readership world wide.
Its free, its convenient, it isn't so wide you hit the person next to you as you turn the pages.
But it isn't traditional, and it is costing journalists and media proprietors dearly.

I personally feel that Murdoch should fight the Internet, whether or not he will lose.