It’s not exactly a helpful comment from Schmidt, given his company’s strained relationship with the news biz and its recent overtures to publishers: Google is for the first time (albeit on an experimental level) sharing revenue with news publishes via the Fast Flip project and has offered to help the paid content cause by sharing micropayment tools. But you can’t blame Schmidt for saying what many of us are thinking: it’s going to be an uphill struggle to convince a generation used to free online content to suddenly start paying for it.

Murdoch’s paid content battleplan has moved from online to mobile, with the announcement that WSJ’s BlackBerry mobile app will be paid-for from next month. But so far, no News Corp (NYSE: NWS). site has followed WSJ in charging for content and the rhetoric is yet to backed up with action. The company’s UK wing is preparing Sundaytimes.co.uk, a companion site to the Sunday Times broadsheet title, which will come complete with online-only content and staff. Given the timing of Murdoch’s announcement, that site could well be used as a test bed for general interest paid content.