Springer is not the only publisher looking for ways to earn money from digital sources, as readers turn away from printed newspapers and the promise of Internet advertising fades. In the English-speaking world, Rupert Murdoch, the chief executive of News Corp., has been telling anyone who will listen that he plans to erect so-called pay walls for his company’s newspaper Web sites. Other publishers, including The New York Times Co., which owns the International Herald Tribune, have also said they were considering charging for online access.

But while newspaper companies elsewhere have generally been vague about their intentions, Mr. Keese, during an interview at Axel Springer’s headquarters in Berlin, provided a detailed overview of the company’s digital ambitions.

Instead of separate pay walls around individual newspaper Web sites, Mr. Keese wants publishers and Internet companies to work together to create a “one-click marketplace solution” for their online content. In that system, Google or other Internet gateways would display links to newspaper articles, videos and other content from a variety of providers, as search engines do now. But some of the items would include something new: a price tag.

What kind of content would come at a cost? Any “noncommodity journalism,” Mr. Keese said, citing pictures of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy cavorting poolside with models at his villa in Sardinia — published this year by the Spanish daily El País — as an example.

“How much would people pay for that? Surely €5,” he said.

A single mouse click would allow the user to pay for and view the pictures. Readers could also buy flat-rate packages providing access to content from a variety of media companies, Mr. Keese said, just as they can subscribe to unlimited data access plans via mobile phone networks.