Now it's Hearst Charging for Access*

Shira Ovide at the Wall Street Journal's Digits blog reports on a memo from the president of Hearst newspapers, Steven Swartz, that says the publisher of 16 newspapers is planning to charge for access to its newspaper Web sites.

This quote is attributed to Swartz:

"Exactly how much paid content to hold back from our free sites will be a judgment call made daily by our management, whose mission should be to run the best free Web sites in our markets without compromising our ability to get a fair price from consumers for the expensive, unique reporting and writing that we produce each day."

The Digits blog has the full text of the memo from Swartz.

The WSJ's Ovide observes: "If newspapers turn off their free Web sites completely, the number of surfers is almost certain to decrease, but the financial impact is unclear – largely because there are few large-scale models in existence.

Newsday announced earlier its intention to begin charging for access.

A column by David Lazarus in Sunday's Los Angeles Times suggests iTunes provides a lead for newspapers to follow.

Meanwhile, cuts continue to be announced at papers, some of the most recent at the Albany (NY) Times Union.

(via Romenesko)

* More on the memo at Fitz & Jen.

-- TJ Sullivan

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