Rupert Murdoch wants to try to cancel the free lunch online readers enjoy while eating away at his company’s, News Corp.’s, profits.

As quoted in his paper, the New York Post:

“Quality journalism is not cheap,” he said. “A newspaper that gives away its content is simply cannibalizing its ability to produce good reporting.”

“We intend to charge for all news Web sites,” Murdoch said, referring not only to the online versions of newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The London Sun and The Post, but also to news-related Web sites like those of Fox News Channel and Fox Business Network. Murdoch added that he expects to begin charging for news content online sometime during this fiscal year.

Murdoch has also lost faith in the ad-supported broadcasting model, and is looking to generate revenue from cable companies and ultimately end users for watching programming from his Fox TV network. Meanwhile, the article mentions that the industry is headed to a showdown between the content creators like News Corp. and the aggregators such as Google and Yahoo! who argue that their services enhances the originating brands.

There are plenty of naysayers out there that claim that only select brands like the Wall Street Journal are successful in charging for content, but there continues to be a dearth of any better ideas that pay for professional journalism.