Sept. 15 (Bloomberg) -- The Wall Street Journal will start charging for its mobile application, including on the BlackBerry, News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Rupert Murdoch said today at a conference.

In the next month or two, the newspaper will levy a $2 weekly fee for access by non-subscribers, Murdoch said at the Goldman Sachs Group Inc. Communacopia conference in New York. Print subscribers will have to pay $1 a week, and those who pay for both print and online editions can get it for free, he said.

Newspapers including the Journal, which already charges for online subscriptions, have been seeking new sources of revenue to counter the loss of advertising and paying readers to the Internet. In July, the New York Times Co. asked its print subscribers whether they would be willing to pay $2.50 a month for Web site access.

The fees will apply to the Journal’s mobile application, which is available for Research In Motion Ltd.’s BlackBerry and Apple Inc.’s iPhone and iPod Touch. The application, which previously has been free to all users, is separate from a mobile phone Web browser.

News Corp., based in New York, rose 27 cents to $12.10 at 4:30 p.m. in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The Class A shares have gained 33 percent this year.

The Journal is the second-largest U.S. newspaper based on daily circulation with 2.08 million subscribers as of the six months ended in March 2009. Gannett Co.’s USA Today is first with 2.11 million, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, and the New York Times is third with 1.04 million.

To contact the reporter on this story: Sarah Rabil in New York at srabil@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: September 15, 2009 17:35 EDT