News Corporation will begin charging readers of online versions of its newspapers in the coming year in a move that Chairman Rupert Murdoch says could spur a shift away from free news content on the Internet. Britain's Sunday Times newspaper will be the testing ground for News Corporation's new policy of charging for Internet content, a report said.

Britain's Sunday Times newspaper will be the testing ground for News Corporation's new policy of charging for Internet content, a report said Friday citing industry sources.

News Corp chairman Rupert Murdoch said this week that the group, owners of the The Sunday Times, The Times and The Wall Street Journal amongst others, would end its policy of free access to online editions, with the exception of the Journal which already charges.

The Sunday Times, which currently shares a website with The Times daily, would have its own standalone site by the end of November as part of the new strategy, the report in The Guardian newspaper added.

The Sunday Times currently sells more than one million copies each week and profits have offset losses at its daily stablemate.

Murdoch's holdings also include the New York Post, The Sun and The Australian.

(c) 2009 AFP

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