Paying your way

If it is indeed the Sunday Times and its content that Mr Murdoch intends to use to test some form of micro-payment or subscription in News International, then his team have lots to do by the suggested launch date of November.

Searching "Sunday Times" today, the Google algorithm first offers the Guardian's story on the payment idea first, then two links to Sunday Times content nesting inside The Times site - and then it's on to the less significant Perth Sunday Times.

So a plan to establish a Sunday Times web presence from essentially a standing start, and then ask people to pay for it, suggests either desperation - or a man with more ideas up his sleeve. People have speculated that he might take his own action against the way Google and Yahoo use content - or block the news Googlebot - but that might mean that fewer people finding the new wonder-site. And the online community will not want others to follow this Murdoch route, so expect interesting forms of boycott once the site appears.