James Murdoch, head of News International and son of media mogul Rupert, strongly criticised the BBC in his speech at MediaGuardian's Edinburgh International Television Festival on Friday and during a Q&A session the following day, calling for the corporation licence fee funding to be significantly reduced. His attack on the BBC was accompanied by extensive criticism of the way the British media industry is regulated.

Murdoch described the "chilling" hold that the BBC has over the media landscape, stressing that its news channels and website were inhibiting the ability of commercial competitors to invest in news and implying that it would put newspapers out of business. He emphasised the size and extent of the corporation, which publishes material that he thinks a state-supported institution should not, referring to "Orwellian" state control.

Rupert Murdoch has reiterated his intention to charge online at all News Corp-owned newspapers in the near future. Speaking on a conference call with analysts about News Corp's earnings, he said that the goal is to start charging within the next financial year, ending in June 2010, reported paidContent's Staci Kramer.

News Corp reported a $3.4bn net loss in the last financial year to June. "Quality journalism is not cheap," the Guardian quoted Murdoch as saying. "The digital revolution has opened many new and inexpensive distribution channels but it has not made content free. We intend to charge for all our news websites." He declared himself willing to take the risk to lead the industry in switching to a paid model, the Guardian reported, and said that he believes others will follow. PaidContent said that he suggested that WSJ.com will be a model for charging on the other news sites.

In the UK, the charging model would affect the Times, the Sunday Times, the Sun and the News of the World. Murdoch expressed his enthusiasm for capitalising on the popularity of the latter, reported the Guardian. It was recently confirmed that the Sunday Times will have a standalone website, and rumours have suggested that this could be used as a test case for charging online.

French daily Le Figaro is to start charging for some of its online content in early 2010, according to Press News and 20minutes. Lefigaro.fr is the leading French news site, with 6.6 million unique visitors per month, according to Press News.

Press News reported that the paid content will not consist of what is currently available free; rather there will be new content for which the paper will charge. The paper plans to recruit new journalists to produce this, and a panel of users will be surveyed on possible developments.

20minutes spoke to editor of Lefigaro.fr, Luc de Barochez, who said that the decision to charge has been taken because advertising is not providing enough revenue. The site is not losing money, he stressed, but the advertising income does not provide enough for ongoing development. The paper is as yet undecided whether it will charge on a subscription basis or for individual articles.

PaidContent:UK reported that News International had confirmed that it is planning to launch a separate website for the Sunday Times, rather than keeping the paper's content under the umbrella of the Times Online site. Rumours of a standalone site started in early June when the Guardian reported that such a move was under serious consideration, and that it would charge readers for its content.

The Sunday Times is looking for new staff to help run the site: it has posted job advertisements for a news journalist, an interactive editor, a communities editor, Flash designers and an Escenic developer, paidContent pointed out.

According to paidContent there is "no word yet on whether the site will have a paid content element." The Guardian's article in June asserted that although a final decision on how to charge readers to view content had not been made, it was clear that Sunday Times subscribers would not pay for online access. Rupert Murdoch, who owns News International, has publicly declared his determination to start charging for online content, and paidContent speculates on whether the Sunday Times could be a "test bed" for a charging model.