Staring mid-October, The Financial Times' website will be granting "casual readers" complimentary access to its online content. The move will enable would-be viewers to read up to 30 articles per month and give the FT an opportunity to get a leg up on competitors like the Wall Street Journal Online (without pulling a TimesSelect) by becoming a growing online presence.

[The shift] comes as other newspapers are rethinking their efforts to charge users for online content. A surge in online ad spending over the past three years has persuaded many publishers that it is better to increase their Internet audience, in an effort to appeal to advertisers, than to try to squeeze meager revenue from online subscriptions.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Murdoch and the Dow Jones Co. will retaliate in kind, either by offering WSJ readers a similar online premium or by taking over the Financial Times Group (owned by Pearson PLC) in an effort to singlehandedly control every international financial news outlet and, ultimately, the world.