For years newspapers have been losing readers, first to television, and then to the internet. The newspaper owners realised, that they had might as well put their content on a website, or other would do so. At least they would be able to sell advertising and keep a readership.
However, there are costs involve in reporting news and publishing a website, and at the moment, the internet versions of newspapers, such as the Daily Mail's excellent site, are subsidised by the people who buy the physical newspaper. In the long run, as less and less people buy a newspaper, that is unsustainable.
In the short term, proprietors such as Murdoch, are putting premium news sites behind a paywall. However, in the long term, they are developing on-line products which are entirely new, with no paper equivalent. They will replace newspapers as we know them at present.
Murdoch is about to publish a new newspaper "The Daily" which will be published only on the iPad (There is already an iPad edition of "The Times"). What is interesting, is that is more affordable, and could be cheaper than buy a real paper.
http://thenextweb.com...-newspaper-the-daily/