Two months after rival pub the New York Times took down their pay wall, NewsCorp Chair Rupert Murdoch has said he is planning to make access to The Wall Street Journal free, dropping subscription fees in exchange for anticipated ad revenue, reports AP. Speculation abounds as to whether the Globe & Mail, the only Canadian daily to maintain a pay wall, will follow suit. After the NYT took down their pay wall in September, G&M media reporter Grant Robertson wrote this article indicating that the pay wall surrounding the Globe’s archive would stay put. Will Murdoch’s decision inspire globeandmail.com to revisit the issue?

A MediaShift blog entry by Mark Glaser does a good job of weighing the pros and cons of each business model and provides links to other opinions. We would love to hear yours.