• by Joe Mandese  @mp_joemandese, January 10, 2008

Just weeks after being acquired by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., Dow Jones & Co has begun opening access to some previously paid content at the Wall Street Journal Online, Reuters reports.

An item in the Wall Street Journal Europe newspaper this morning said the company has rolled out a new Web site offering free access to all its editorials and opinion columns. Core news content remains a subscription service.

The move marks the first significant change in Dow Jones & Co.'s business model by Murdoch, who has previously made statements indicating that the Wall Street Journal Online might ultimately move to an ad-supported model from a premium content model.

Such a move would be significant, because the Wall Street Journal Online is deemed one of the few successful premium online content publishing examples in the newspaper industry. It also comes at a time when the New York Times appears to be backing away from its Times Select premium content model.