• by Wendy Davis , Staff Writer @wendyndavis, January 25, 2008

Shortly after Rupert Murdoch purchased The Wall Street Journal last year, he gave every indication that he planned to take down the paid subscriber wall online and offer the newspaper for free on the Web.

But he's apparently had second thoughts. This week, speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos, he said that portions of the site will only be available to paying readers. The material that provides "the greatest insight" will still require subscriptions, he reportedly said.

That type of hybrid plan sounds somewhat similar to what The New York Times attempted with Times Select, its premium service that charged $49.95 a year for access to some columnists. When the company ended the two-year effort in September, many observers viewed the move at least partly as a preemptive strike against the Journal, which was then expected to become completely free online. Another competitor, the Financial Times, also recently took steps to offer articles for free on a limited basis, according to the Guardian in the U.K.

At this point, exactly how much of the Journal will remain behind a paid wall isn't clear, but there's no question that much of the newspaper's content is more accessible than in the past, thanks to initiatives like its recent alliance with Digg.

The Journal, unlike the Times and many other papers, has always charged online readers, who pay a collective $70 million a year for the service. So making all content free could potentially deprive the newspaper of a big chunk of revenue in one fell swoop. At the same time, company executives are likely asking themselves how long the paid model can continue when news is increasingly available for free on the Web.