News Corp. has announced an investment in Journalism Online, a startup that aims to help newspapers generate paid online content.

Also part of the company’s pay-content move, the News Corp appointed one of its strategic advisers, Jon Housman, as president of digital journalism initiatives and acquired Skiff, an e-reading platform designed to deliver layouts for newspaper and magazine content to tablet computers, smartphones, e-readers and netbooks. Financial terms of the agreements have not been disclosed.

The Wall Street Journal, a News Corp. paper, currently charges for full online access, while The Times and Sunday Times will become the first newspapers in the UK to start charging readers on the internet.

Journalism Online was founded in April 2009 by three US media executives and developed a payment platform called "Press+" that would enable subscribers to access paid content using a universal Journalism Online account.