• by Tanya Gazdik , January 28, 2008

Contradicting an earlier statement, Rupert Murdoch said Thursday that The Wall Street Journal will continue to charge a fee for full access to its Web site. He indicated that those charges may actually go up rather than disappear.

Some material on WSJ.com is free now. But Murdoch has considered opening the site to non-paying subscribers in hopes of building additional advertising revenues, which he believes would likely offset lost revenues from subscriber fees.

Murdoch was quoted in the Journal as saying that WSJ.com would "greatly expand and improve" the portion of the site that is available to non-paying subscribers, but that there will still be a "strong offering" for paying subscribers.

"The really special things will still be a subscription service, and, sorry to tell you, probably more expensive," he added.

Murdoch's News Corp. media conglomerate completed its purchase of Dow Jones & Co., which publishes the Wall Street Journal, in December.