We forgive News Limited’s Richard Freudenstein for using the word “freemium”* at least half a dozen times in a speech delivered this morning at the Mumbrella 360 conference. Why? Because Freudenstein outlined in the most detailed terms to date the company’s much anticipated paywall strategy: so far undefined “premium” content will go behind a paywall — breaking news and wire stories will remain free.

It comes a week after Fairfax launched its glossy new apps for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age — both beautiful examples of what the medium’s capable of delivering.

As our media reporter Margaret Simons writes today: “We should be hopeful, and sympathetic, to the new models being introduced at both News Limited and Fairfax. The need to migrate to a new business model is just that — a need. There are no choices here. And if we want high quality journalism, we must support experimentation.”

But it’s widely agreed large numbers of the general public won’t pay for “deeper, richer” content. Not yet, at least. That partly explains why The Australian remains the only paper in the News Ltd stable with a fixed deadline for its paywall plan (October). We may be waiting much longer to see any kind of paywalling of the likes of The Daily Telegraph and its ilk.

Essentially, these gigantic markets are recalibrating their targets and aiming their sights at a very different audience — a smaller one. “Niche” was another word that Freudenstein employed this morning, as he outlined a strategy of building a community around a paid subscription with an emphasis on social networking (echoing The New York Times) and the promise of an exclusive, high-end loyalty club (taking cues from The Times in Britain).

As for selling this stuff, Freudenstein did a bit of crystal ball gazing: “I’m guessing in 10 years’ time our weekday circulation will be lower than it is today but that will be more than made up for by our digital circulation … and we will have completely solved how to sell advertising across print, tablet and digital by then.”

There was once a time when you would never hear certain words uttered by a media exec: the admission they didn’t quite know what they were doing. It’s refreshing, it’s realistic and, well, it’s true. We’ve moved way beyond denying the death of the newspaper — welcome to the age of pragmatism.

*A word possibly worse than “webinar”. Yes, we know…

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