Pay up

There's a minor hoo-ha about Rupert Murdoch's admission of a delay in moving some News International content behind pay walls.

I have no inside track, but it's pretty clear that the manoeuvre needs some choreography to work effectively in various markets - and that the choreography could be deemed anti-competitive.

If we assume it's premium content, not basic news, that will require a subscription package (most likely combining print subscriptions and/or premium online with readers' offers clubs), then the UK trio of the Guardian, Telegraph and Times are in the frame. (The Mail is doing well, but you could hardly call its key content - showbiz photos of women - premium.) The three are roughly neck and neck in hits, and some people think their UK unique user figures are close to a plateau. So if one takes travel, style, motoring, property, gardening, personal finance, the arts etc behind a wall at a price, would brand loyalty really stop enough users moving to the other two as reasonable sources of similar stuff ? And would the premium advertisers who enjoy association with these supplements really tolerate fewer eyeballs - or move to the other two ?

So timing - not by days or weeks, but at least by months - is important.