The ongoing Murdoch versus Google story continues to unfold, providing food for thought about the future of online news and user behaviour.

The stand-off between the newspaper and online industries went up a notch last week when America’s largest metropolitan newspaper The New York Times announced that it will start charging readers for online content from 2011.

Following the subscription model of the Financial Times and Wall Street Journal, The New York Times will offer a limited number of articles for free viewing, after which users will have to register and pay for any additional content.

NYTIMES.com is the most popular online newspaper in America and New York Times Company executives are hoping that the new system will enable them to profit from the loyalty of regular users, without completely blocking the site from its millions of occasional readers.