Three top U.S. media executives, Court TV founder Steven Brill, former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, and Leo Hindery, a former chief executive of AT&T Broadband, have started a company aimed to help the newspaper and print industry derive income from the Internet, AFP reported.

The project, Journalism Online, aims to target readers that "will continue to support journalists by paying a modest, fair price for original, independent, professional work distributed online."

Brill said the company has already held talks with most major U.S. newspaper and magazine publishers and they expressed "strong interest" in the venture.

"We think this is a special moment in time when there is an urgent need for a business model that allows quality journalism to be the beneficiary of the Internet's efficient delivery mechanism rather than its victim," he told AFP. "We believe we have developed a strategy and a set of services that will establish that model by restoring a stream of circulation revenue to supplement advertising revenue."

The Wall Street Journal is the only major U.S. paper to currently charge for access to portions of its Web site, but many other newspapers are considering the introduction of different pay for content models.

Journalism Online is set to be a "password-protected Web site with one easy-to-use account through which consumers will be able to purchase annual or monthly subscriptions, day passes, and single articles from multiple publishers," the founders stated, according to AFP.

"The password-enabled payment system will be integrated into all of the member-publishers' Web sites, and the publishers will have sole discretion over which content to charge for, how much to charge, and the manner of charge."

Publishers will determine prices for their content, Hindery told AFP, describing the payment process as "seamless."

Journalism Online would also offer annual or monthly subscriptions, allowing single fee, complete access to the content of all affiliated publishers. The subsequent revenue would be shared amongst the publishers. The group also will negotiate wholesale licensing and royalty fees with intermediaries such as search engines and other Web sites, AFP reported.