• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 2, 2007

With the fate of Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal all but sealed, analysts are asking how their online bodies will be altered under the rule of Rupert Murdoch and his News Corp.

Murdoch has repeatedly expressed his desire to accelerate the integration print and video online. With Dow Jones, he can now combine reporting from The Journal, Barron's, Dow Jones Newswires and MarketWatch.com with video from Fox and Sky News, among other outlets.

A key question is whether The Journal will retain its subscription model. Along with The New York Times, it is one of the few publishers preserving a pay-wall online. The service is not unpopular, as more than 900,000 paying subscribers willingly shell out as much as $99 a year for the service.

"They shouldn't touch it," said analyst Charlene Li, Forrester Research. "It's a great money-making machine; they're one of the few [publications] that people will pay for, or at least expense."

A more accessible WSJ.com would obviously attract more advertising, yet relinquishing its pay-wall might oblige the Journal to cut its premium ad rates in line with the less "premium" audience that would attract.

John Squires, executive vice president of Time Inc., said the company is making plans for CNNMoney.com "as if" WSJ.com were going to a free model. He called the deal "good for the market" and a validation of the business category for advertisers.

"I assume that will happen," Squires said of an eventual free site, speculating on Murdoch's plans for WSJ.com and the upcoming Fox Business News channel. "It means we'll have to have a strong video strategy and invest in the site."

CNNMoney.com introduced a significant redesign in February, and its business leader Vivek Shah was recently elevated to lead Time Inc.'s overall business publishing efforts.