In a moved tipped earlier this week by The Australian, Fairfax Digital Media yesterday launched Business Day, an online business site which will draw from the resources of the company's two metropolitan broadsheets, The Sydney Morning Herald and Melbourne's The Age. In the meantime, the AFR has been advertising for staff for afr.com.

"There are a lot of things coming in that space but we would rather surprise people," Fairfax Business Media Chief Michael Gill said. "Our plan is we are basically aiming to be ready to transfer the whole of our business into the digital model we have got. That says we are planning to do a lot more. Our digital model for the AFR is the same as we have in print. The newspaper is $2.70 - there are not many newspapers priced like that. The web model is very similar - we are trying to build a channel to the premium audience."

New online services would be launched "within a month or so - we are pretty close," Gill said. http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/wireless/story/0percent2C8262percent2C2-21377478percent2C00.html; March 14, 2007