In four weeks, The Times' network of news sites will no longer allow search engines to index its articles.

Rupert Murdoch has long threatened to hide some of the news sites in his media empire from search engines such as Google. It seems he's finally ready to walk the walk.

The folks from PaidContent saw a preview of the two upcoming redesigns, and the future is indeed looking bleak for non-paying customers. Visitors who aren't members will be greeted with a login screen and will be unable to view articles.

According to Assistant Editor of The Times Tom Whitwell, the reason you won't be able to search for articles is to strengthen the distinction between paying and non-paying customers. “The clarity is something that was very important. If you’re asking someone to pay for something, it has to be very clear what they’re paying for,” he said.

The question is: How will The Times attract new readers? The times (no pun intended) are changing, and search engines, links and mentions on social networks are the currency of attention. Block them, and the attention will shift elsewhere. Murdoch claims he'd rather have fewer customers coming to his sites if they are paying. Soon enough, we'll see if this "less is more" philosophy holds water.