As a former journalist, it pains me to see how the industry has developed over the last few years.

Day rates for freelances haven’t risen in line with inflation; daily and Sunday staff are being asked to work across all titles, resulting in the loss of some jobs; and the internet has meant that gaining a share of voice has become dispersed as blogs and social networking takes its toll.

But the beauty of the internet is that it allows everyone access to the news, entertainment and information they require.

Want to find something out about the latest diet, watch your team’s latest performance or learn more about the history of penicillin? The internet is the place to go.

And Google, which undoubtedly leads the way both as a search engine and perhaps for browsers, email and suchlike, is the place most of us go to find what we want to find out about.

But Rupert Murdoch is frustrated by this.

I read The Sun, The Times and Sunday Times online and don’t pay for them (though I do also buy them and use their sites more for breaking news) – and Mr Murdoch doesn’t like that.

In some respects, I understand why, because the lack of income from readers has had a direct effect on the fate of journalists.

But what Mr Murdoch should be doing is finding new ways of maximising his website income through advertising and banners.

Advertisers should be paying a premium for their ads to be seen by visitors to News Corp sites because those sites have content which is of great interest. But it is not always unique content.

Mr Murdoch is planning to erect ‘pay walls’ which will charge for online content on the Sun, the Times, the New York Post and the Australian, amongst others.

This will involve removing News Corp titles from Google searches and possibly running them through Bing, the Microsoft search engine, where readers will be directed to pay if they wish to read further.

Will readers start making the move profitable for Mr Murdoch and his empire? I’m not so sure.

The fact is, there will always be ways of reading online content and if News Corp continually stays ahead of the game (possibly investing any online subscription profits in firewalls to stop potential hackers), people will just go elsewhere.

A number of media organisations, including the BBC and The Guardian and Observer, have already declared that they will not charge for online content and that in turn could give them an advertising revenue advantage (in the case of the Guardian/Observer) by driving more readers to their sites.

The beauty of the internet is its accessibility and when information is available so freely, will News Corp and Mr Murdoch really be able to change the face of the worldwide web?

Watch this space – and I promise I won’t charge!
 
 
I’ve noticed recently that a number of the journalists working for The Observer newspaper have started being bylined in The Guardian, its weekday sister newspaper.

These are dark days for major newspaper titles, which is ironic given the continuing thirst for news, entertaining stories and articles that we seem to crave in as many different ways as possible.

Rumours that The Observer may be closing have gathered pace in recent weeks and when staff journalists start to work across both titles, it does not bode well.

The threat hanging over The Observer comes quickly on the heels of the news that The London Paper is closing soon.

It underlines how the use of smart phones, citizen journalism, instant news and a wide range of media outlets above and beyond those we would conventionally think of is making it harder and harder for hacks to survive.

A lot of the problems come from advertising of course, which has suffered so much during the economic downturn.

When I was a journalist, advertising department staff used to say ‘You write the stories and we’ll pay for the running of the newspaper’ and that is undoubtedly true.

You only have to look at stunning magazines such as Vogue or GQ and see how packed full of adverts they are to realise that it is the ad departments rather than the cover price which pays to keep publications running.

Rupert Murdoch, whether it is because his titles are generally becoming less profitable or because he feels nothing should be free, is planning to start charging for online content, while The Economist is planning to charge for all online content.

Whether this will turn readers off or not, time will tell, but with a plethora of news and information sources available now, especially in this world of social networking and Web 2.0, I remain to be convinced that charging for web content will ever be the norm.

From a public relations perspective, losing a valuable title narrows the options for exposure for clients.

But there is an irony that us ‘spin doctors’ need the press so much while the media is losing some of the variety and diversity which makes the British media so special.

The Observer, along with The Guardian, has long held a left of centre standpoint but it is also exceptional when it comes to the arts, not to mention its investigative and in-depth reporting and features.

It would be a tragedy if the world’s oldest Sunday newspaper is closed by the Scott Trust.

The National Union of Journalists has organised a public meeting entitled ‘Stand up for The Observer’ http://www.standupfortheobserver.org.uk/ to chaired by Peep Show’s David Mitchell on September 21.

For the good of the Observer’s journalists, balance in the media and in order to retain a British institution, I sincerely hope the campaign is a success.