Some said it would never happen, some said it was inevitable, but most said whoever tried it first would be toast before others followed.

NewsCorp, which has been losing money like a drunk man at a poker table (£2bn last financial year if you believe their figures) has announced that soon it will be charging for news content online.

TheEye buys the Times and the Telegraph each day but not for the news…there is nothing to beat filling in a crossword in a folded up newspaper. Printing it off from a website isn’t the same. It’s a masochistic thing, as the aim seems less to complete it but more to stare at the clues blankly and, as with Caesar, listen to the chariot slave whisper in one’s ear “Remember, thou art mortal”.

Frankly the news in both is pretty shallow – especially Murdoch’s Times – and we won’t be linking to that site if it wants to charge. Similarly not to The Sun, New York Post and Wall Street Journal etc. The web is full of excellent sources of news which will remain free and, occasionally as a bonus, well written.

All Seeing Eye is a team effort, and for no charge we filter and share what’s out there for you all because we enjoy it. A Tangled Web and this blog give you an esoteric mix of the big and the small stories, and The Grumpy Old Twat bends them through a sweary prism into biting abuse of those above their station.

The links on the right of the blog are good reads one and all, and are recommended. If yours is missing and worth a look then email me or leave something in the Comments.

So Murdoch can take a running jump. The free web is here to stay…especially this little corner of it.