Kim Williams’ paywall U-turn. News Limited will erect metered paywalls on its Herald Sun and Daily Telegraph websites next Thursday after ditching its “freemium” paywall strategy. Metered paywalls — allowing readers to access a set number of free articles before being asked to pay — will follow in June for The Courier-Mail and AdelaideNow. Potential subscribers will be lured to sign up with the offer of integrated content from Fox Sports. A standalone digital subscription will cost $4 a week — in line with Fairfax, which will charge $15 a month for full access when paywalls go up on The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age later this year.

There’s a global trend towards metered paywalls, which allow publishers to attract casual browsers while milking money out of loyal readers. The Herald Sun, by contrast, has made “preemium” content — including sports, crime and opinion articles — available only to subscribers since last March. The stony silence from News about how many readers signed up has long been seen as a sign the Hun experiment was a flop. The Australian Financial Review is also switching to a metered model later this year, while The Australian (and Crikey) continue with more rigid paywall strategies. — Matthew Knott 

Fairfax gets its Phil. Fairfax today announced business reporting young gun Philip Wen will be its new China correspondent. As Crikey reported last week, current correspondent John Garnaut is returning home after almost six years in Beijing. Here’s the email to staff from The Age editor-in-chief Andrew Holden:

Hi everyone,

I am delighted to announce that Philip Wen will replace John Garnaut as Fairfax’s China correspondent.

Phil has quickly crafted a strong reputation as a business journalist in both Sydney and Melbourne after starting his career with KPMG.

Fluent in Mandarin, Phil demonstrated his ability to blend his language and reporting skills with a five-month posting to Beijing last year, covering for John while he was on book leave. As well as covering major events such as the fall of political star Bo Xilai, Phil showed remarkable tenacity in becoming only the second western journalist to reach a Sichuan village at the heart of Tibet’s spate of self-immolation, and his video footage of illegal coalmines in remote Yunnan province was extraordinary.

I know you will all join me in congratulating Phil on this appointment, which he will take up in the next three months.

— Matthew Knott 

Murdoch needs sports hit. No wonder Rupert Murdoch wants to be a national player in the US in the sports cable business: figures out this morning in New York show that America’s dominant sports cable operator, ESPN, is a gold mine for its owner, the Walt Disney Company — with a gross profit margin of around 50 cents in every dollar of revenue. That was after ESPN produced a sharp rise in revenue and profits in the three months to Match, which helped offset a sharp slide in revenue and profits from Disney’s ABC free-to-air network.

News Corporation announced earlier this year it planned to spend $US1 billion and more over the next few years growing its Fox Sports channel to a national operation to take on ESPN. In fact, judging from the Disney result, the move by News can’t come fast enough as ESPN’s results are far stronger than the performance from ABC — a suggestion that free-to-air TV in the US remains under pressure. In fact, the March quarter results for Disney provide something of a template for News Corp’s third-quarter report tomorrow morning (our time), with strong results from its cable networks more than offsetting weak results from the company’s free-to-air network. At News we can expect another weak performance from its print and publishing business (about to be spun off), strong results from Fox cable networks (led by Fox News, despite weaker ratings in the quarter) and moderate performances from Fox TV and Fox’s film studio businesses.

The US free-to-air business is facing an increasingly variable outlook thanks to bumpy ratings, rising costs and weakening audience figures for some previously strong programs. ABC has reported falling ad revenues and profits for the quarter, and Fox, owned by News, which has seen ratings for many of its hits — led by American Idol — slide in recent months. CBS remains the top network in the US. NBC, controlled by cable giant Comcast, is also weak. Disney blamed “higher prime-time programming costs and a decrease in advertising revenue”. — Glenn Dyer

Not so, says PBO. The Australian Financial Review splashed today with a scoop by Phil Coorey claiming the Parliamentary Budget Office had costed the Coalition’s Paid Parental Scheme at over $5 billion a year.

But the PBO fired back with this statement this morning:

Good faces for newspapers. Another example from newspapers about how some people don’t get TV: according to US website Talkingbiznews, senior executives at The Wall Street Journal have taken to reminding staff they need to pretty up before appearing on TV. The site uncovered this memo to staff a couple of days ago:

“Video continues to become a bigger, more vital part of how we deliver news to our audience, and we continue to refine our video offerings in what is increasingly a highly competitive environment. ‘WSJ Live,’ as we call our video output, generates programming for 30 different platforms including WSJ.com and from Apple TV to Xbox. Monthly video views hit 35 million in 2012. Many of you have embraced our video revolution, and as this tremendous growth continues, we anticipate an ever-larger number of  reporters and editors will be called on to deliver news this way, just as we do on other platforms.

“In that light, we want to remind those appearing on camera that you should take into consideration your appearance both in terms of journalistic content and on-air presentation.

“People are watching — and they are watching you. All of us appearing on-air should take care to present ourselves in the best light possible, and that includes physical appearance. As many of our regular guests already know, neat and professional dress, combed hair and a quick visit to our resident makeup artist on the 6th floor is encouraged before each appearance for both men and women – even for just a quick dash of powder. You want the spotlight focused on your stellar journalism — not shining off your forehead …”

Now this is TV 101 and should have been issued to staff years ago, and engrained in in stone. The Wall Street Journal has had an involvement in TV programming now for more than 20 years. So given that background, you’d reckon the paper’s journalistic staff would have the basics of TV appearances down pat. — Glenn Dyer

Front page of the day. Missing for a decade, three women emerge from a kidnapping nightmare in Cleveland “alive and safe” in a case that has captivated America. The city’s paper of record went big …