 The internet revolution since the late nineties brought with it a steady flow of free content – whether news, pictures, videos or music. But if moves being made by media mogul Rupert Murdoch are any indication, we may soon be seeing the end of ‘free’dom. Online newspapers like the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times already charge for a part of their content which is highly analytical and premium in nature. Soon, newspapers and journals may follow suit, with paid subscription becoming the order of the day. With the coming of the New Year, several publications including the New York Times may launch their fee structure for the access to internet content. Leading the way, Rupert Murdoch is charging subscription on the WSJ and plans to do the same for other elements of his media empire as well. Earlier reports indicate that he is in keen to work out a partnership with a single search engine to make access to the WSJ’s content available rather than letting all search engines crawl through his content database. Hulu, a video streaming site that currently runs some television shows online for free, may soon switch over to a subscription model as well. There are also reports that magazine publishers are banding together to create a content version of the iTunes store, where readers can pay to access piecemeal content, most of which the magazines are currently giving away for free. And God forbid, but media companies are even planning to charge for the apps on iPhones and other mobile devices that they release. So is this really where freebies end and only paying customers stay? What has brought about this change? Media companies building online content always relied heavily on the advertising content to generate revenues for them to continue making profits. The down turn has seen all that come to an end, with advertising going into a tailspin and media rates that companies are willing to pay dipping to levels where they no longer sustain the publication. Content providers now have no option but to shrink, shut down or find alternative ways to stay afloat. And their target is an audience that has spent over a decade in the realm of free content. However, industry experts are still sceptical of the move as many of the publications announcing such moves are still to show concrete steps towards their implementation. Even those industry executives advocating these moves are cautious about how they plan to implement them. However, one thing is clear: content providers no longer see pay walls as something that will stifle viewership or reduce traffic to their site. In the words of one expert, content companies are now performing the equivalent of trying to put toothpaste back inside the tube. The one thing that cannot be denied is that a hard look at realities is coming in, and is influencing change in attitude towards content, though what shape that change will take is still unclear. Content digitalization has hit revenues everywhere, starting first with the music industry, and now video content. Publishers that believed online advertising would continue to grow as the scope of the internet expanded are now coming face to face with the harsh realities. But on the other hand, experiences with trying to control content in case of the music and video segments have shown that the moment cash barriers are put up, content goes illegal. Illegal music downloads today far outstrip the paid downloads, in spite of the success of a few ventures like iTunes. And cable television is headed the same way, with most program content being found on video sharing sites across the net. The challenge today is more for established media, as the newcomers on the block are unhampered by their fixed investments of the past, and can still afford to survive with free content. The question remains on which portion will dominate the internet space in the coming two years, and 2010 may well be the year of consumers actually dipping into their pockets for content. | 
