News Corp's News International launched new paid-for websites for the Times of London and the Sunday Times today, making them the first major newspapers in Britain to charge readers for online access.
The sites will be free for the first eight weeks for users who register. After that, readers will be charged £1 per day or £2 per week for both titles.
Seven-day subscriptions to the print versions will include access to the websites - www.thetimes.co.uk and www.thesundaytimes.co.uk - which replace the previous single Times Online site for both titles.
News Corp's chief executive Rupert Murdoch has championed the cause of charging for news online, which consumers have become used to reading for free, helped by search services like Google News, which has contributed to a fall in newspapers' revenues.
His Wall Street Journal, along with rival business daily the Financial Times, owned by Pearson, both already charge for online access. The New York Times plans to start charging for access to its website next year.
The new Times and Sunday Times websites include extra content such as video - some from BSkyB, in which News Corp has a 40 per cent stake - and a tool that allows readers to move directly to book tickets from reviews of cultural events.
"We will continue to add new features to ensure that the innovation that has been central to The Times for 225 years continues into the future," editor James Harding said in a statement.
Defending the plan to introduce a paywall, Mr Harding said the internet could “wipe out” the title unless changes were introduced. “It is time to stop giving our journalism away," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
Mr Harding said giving readers free access to the newspaper's content was "undermining the value of our journalism, undermining the value of the Times and undermining the perception that journalism and news has a value".
Starting in January 2011, a visitor to NYTimes.com will be allowed to view a certain number of articles free each month. To read more, there will be a flat fee for unlimited access. Subscribers to the print newspaper, even those who subscribe only to the Sunday paper, will receive full access to the site without any additional charge.
The Irish Times was one of the first newspapers in the world to have a web presence when it launched in 1994. The newspaper was also one of the very few worldwide to initially adopt a subscription model for viewing its content on the web. However, last year the newspaper changed this strategy and launched the website www.irishtimes.com, which offers content from the newspaper and a breaking news service.
The Irish Times recently launched the epaper product, for which readers pay a subscription to read the newspaper online in its true printed format. The newspaper also charges for access to its online archive, which contains over 16 million articles spanning nearly 150 years.
Additional reporting: Reuters