Last night, at 10:17 PM EDT, the AP made formal its previously stated public announcement: they are going to start monetizing content by into a subscription package. New Venture Aims to Introduce Fees for Online News, AP press release.
This morning, at 12:07 AM, News Corp announced that they are building a global content portal to join all of Murdoch’s media together. News Corp to Launch Global Content Portal, FT.com.
News Corp is stating it is collecting their massive group of reporters to streamline content sharing, it will also put them in a position to begin controling access to their content. Coupled with AP’s announcement to create a subscriber-based news portal, it looks like both Rupert Murdoch and Tom Curley are making good on their promises.
UPDATE: According to press release put out yesterday by Journalism Online, Steven Brill–media founder of Court TV, American Lawyer and Brill’s Content–has joined up with former WSJ exec and former cable exec to create a news portal to facilitate content flow from newspapers to online mediums via licensing agreements.