Led by Rupert Murdoch, the newspaper industry has launched a campaign against free online content.
It has taken aim at content aggregators such as Google for unfairly profiting from its content, with the Wall Street Journal's editor calling the sites "parasites on the intestines of the internet."
The Associated Press has said it will demand that aggregator sites obtain permission to use its content, stating that the policy is largely aimed at search engines like Google and Yahoo.
Robert Thomson, editor of News Corp's Wall Street Journal, told the Murdoch-owned Australian newspaper that Google had profited unfairly from content producers.
While Google argues they drive traffic to sites, the search engine "shamelessly"&brkbar; encourages promiscuity," so a large portion of users don't necessarily associate content with its creator, he said.
Thomson said content aggregators have helped web surfers become conditioned to expect free access to news online - a perception that will have to change.
His statement echoed that of his boss Rupert Murdoch, who last week called for an end to the free, ad-supported online news model.
He said even the New York Times, one of the most popular news sites in the world, could not support itself with advertising.
The New York Times abandoned an experiment to charge for access to editorial content, because it found the free, ad-supported model more profitable.
Murdoch pulled back from a plan to make WSJ's content free when he took over the paper in 2007.