Despite early promising comments from new owner Rupert Murdoch, the Wall Street Journal announced last week that it will continue to charge users to access the majority of information contained on the newspaper's website. There is however a positive spin to the announcement:

Mr. Murdoch made his latest comments at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, in answering a question. "We are going to greatly expand and improve the free part of The Wall Street Journal online, but there will still be a strong offering" for subscribers, he said. "The really special things will still be a subscription service, and, sorry to tell you, probably more expensive."

The Journal's decision bucks a recent trend of print publications, such the New York Times and the Atlantic Monthly, who have removed subscription barriers and made a large portion of their archives freely available online.