News Corp. is expected to compete the deal to buy Dow Jones, the publisher of the WSJ, by the end of this year.

Murdoch told shareholders at a meeting in Adelaide, Australia that a free access model will drive large numbers of high-value advertisers, Media Guardian reported.

"We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having 1 million (subscribers), having at least 10 million to 15 million in every corner of the earth," Murdoch said.

WSJ.com has long been the best practice of a paid-access news site, drawing in a wealthy readership that values the site's influential markets news. The site has approximately one million subscribers generating US $50 million (£25 million) in revenue each year.

When asked about News Corp's financial performance, Murdoch said its advertising demand has held up in spite of the crisis in the U.S. credit market, and said the firm "was going well and very strongly" this quarter.

He added that as only 23 percent of the existing revenues came from advertising, even a 10 percent drop in the overall U.S. ad market would not be "fatal".

WSJ rival the Financial Times last month announced changes to its own paid-for online content, allowing users to access up to 30 stories for free each month.