Johnston Press, one of Britain's three largest local paper groups, today began charging for online access to some of its titles, in the latest sign that the industry is attempting to make the internet pay.

Johnston Press is introducing "paywalls" on the websites of six of its titles including the Northumberland Gazette and the Worksop Guardian.

Readers will be asked to pay £5 for a three-month subscription or to buy the newspapers, which also include the Ripley & Heanor News and the Whitby Gazette. In Scotland, the Carrick Gazette and Southern Reporter are taking part in the trial.

The group, run by chief executive John Fry, will judge whether the experiment has been a success before it decides whether to roll out the scheme across all of its 300 or so newspaper titles.

It said today: "It is intended that the trial will last for three months and is expected to give Johnston Press important insight into its consumers’ preferences...There are no current plans to place further titles behind a pay wall."

An internal memo leaked to the website Hold The Front Page last week, said: "Customers are used to paying for content in paper and we are simply transferring this thinking online."

Johnston Press, which also owns The Scotsman and the Yorkshire Post, said this month that while the slump was easing, advertising revenues in August and September were still down 19 per cent over the previous year.

The Scotsman already operates a similar system for readers wishing to view "premium content" on its site.

Newspapers are searching for alternative ways to boost revenues as advertising collapsed during the downturn and as newspapers lose readers to websites.

News Corporation has already said it is aiming to introduce charges for reading online content from its titles, including The Times.

Rupert Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, said in October: “Successful newspapers of the future will charge for their content and aggregators will largely be excluded. I’m convinced that quality news is more valuable than ever.”

Back in the spring he warned that “the current [business] model is malfunctioning” for newspapers.

One of News Corp's titles, The Wall Street Journal, already charges for online content.

The Financial Times currently charges a subscription for full access to its web content. But most other national newspapers remain free to online readers so far.

"We're concerned that whatever action Johnston Press takes it does it properly, in a way that will secure the future of journalism across its titles," said Barry Fitzpatrick, head of publishing at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ).

"If Johnston Press wants people to pay for news online, it will need the sort of high-quality content that will make people reach for their wallets. That means greater investment in journalists working close to the communities they serve."

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