The Times will revamp its charging system for digital editions of the paper in spring 2010 and withdraw from the 'trickery and fakery of the ABCs [Audit Bureau of Circulations reports]', its editor said today.

Speaking at the Society of Editors conference, James Harding elaborated on News International's plans for charging for online content saying that paid-for digital editions and subscriptions are being developed and not a micropayment system.

Newspapers need to be careful about introducing micropayments on an article-by-article basis or 'you'll find yourself writing a lot about Britney Spears', said Harding.

The Times will instead introduce 24-hour subscriptions to digital editions or offer longer subscriptions to online content. The paper currently offers a range of paid-for access options to e-editions, including £2.50 to purchase a single current or archived issue.

There is a 'genuine digital newspaper habit amongst many people', said Harding, adding that 500,000 already read the Times in this way.

A pricing point for the new digital editions is still being decided, but the paper will attempt to convert more promiscuous readers and unique users into digital edition subscribers, he said.

Independent journalism needs to be put on an independent economic footing, said Harding, citing the cost of the Times' coverage of the Iraq war (around £1.5 million for its Baghdad bureau) and recent coverage of Sri Lanka (£10,000 for the journalist's journey).

"We are in the fight of our lives. We are going to have to rewrite the economics of the situation (…) The real issue has been the extraordinary divorce of value and price," said Harding.

"We keep investing in journalism and we do that because we believe that that's what our readers want; we live in an age that's not dumbing down, but dumbing up. We believe we have a product of great value and that we have a market for it.

"We are going to take on the culture of free we have seen what the culture of free has done to the music business and we cannot as a newspaper or a society allow this to happen."

The Times will also 'take more care' of its loyal readers and customers, including through initiatives such as its recently launched membership club Times+, rather than giving away the paper to people who simply 'couldn't care less', he added.

Speaking at the Beijing Media Summit in September, parent company News Corp's Rupert Murdoch described aggregators and search engines as 'kleptomaniacs' and 'plagiarists'.

"We're going to confront those people who we think represent a serious threat to the future of independent journalism," said Harding.

Speaking on the same panel, Matt Brittin, UK director of Google, said publishers could remove their content from Google News and Google search 'in seconds'.

"Most news organisations value the readership that comes to them even if they haven't found ways yet to fully commercialise that audience as they have done in print," he said.

"We're a technology company and we'll try and contribute technology that helps."

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