WSJ.com to remain a paid service

After saying publicly that he planned to make The Wall Street Journal's website free and rely on advertising revenue to make up for lost subscriptions, Rupert Murdoch has changed his mind.

Speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, Murdoch said that the articles and sections "giving the greatest insights, that will still be a subscription service."

I guess we can assume that the paper's editorial page will be free now. Perhaps we will even be paid to read it.

News Corp. (NYSE: NWS) appears to have gone back and forth on this matter, and I doubt we've heard the last of it. Long-term, I still think that the WSJ website will end up being free. The increasing quality of online business coverage will make a WSJ subscription less of a necessity for many readers. But a free WSJ-website would instantly become the top business news site in America.