• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, November 14, 2007

The same day that News Corp.'s chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch said he wants to make The Wall Street Journal available for free online, the company started taking steps in that direction through a deal with social news site Digg.com.

Readers of WSJ.com can now submit articles they find noteworthy to Digg via Digg buttons at the end of the stories. Other Digg users will be able to click through to the Journal online and read those articles for free.

As of this morning, Journal pieces submitted include an essay by "Fame Junkie" author Jake Halpern about being bumped from a CNN appearance to make room for a segment about Britney Spears' custody woes, an article about Google's plans to help develop free software to power mobile phones, and a story about Baby Boomer motorcycle enthusiasts who have taken up three-wheeled "trikes."

Of course, the Journal's move is nothing new. Other publishers like The New York Times have included social media features on their Web sites for a while now. Last December, NYTimes.com began including buttons not only to Digg, but also social networking site Facebook and Digg competitor Newsvine (since acquired by MSNBC.com). But the Times was free anyway when it added the Digg button, while the Journal is effectively taking itself free with this move.

Meanwhile, rumors have again surfaced that Digg is shopping itself around. People have long speculated that Digg was on the cusp of being acquired, but the latest gossip, which appeared in Valleywag last week, has a major media company buying the site for an estimated $300 million to $400 million.