“We intend to charge for all our news websites,” New Corp. honcho Rupert Murdoch has officially said in so many words, adding his belief that “if we are successful, we will be followed by other media.” Murdoch owns the New York Post and Wall Street Journal as well as the London Times and Sun newspapers in England.

So what kind of weekly or monthly fees will average news junkies like myself have to pay in order to stay high and informed once all the major news providers start charging? What will it come to in order to read the major print outlets that can’t cut it unless they start charging? In the ’90s a typical Manhattan news hound used to buy the four NYC dailies plus the Voice and the N.Y. Observer and New York magazine and whatever else. Which came to $35 per week and $140 per month…something like that.

What would the estimated cost be in today’s economy? I’m afraid that once all the big news orgs jump on the Murdoch bandwagon that it may come to something like…I don’t know, $250 or $300 a month? More?