I think it’s safe to assume Rupert Murdoch is a very smart man. He’s certainly an extremely wealthy man — he’s number 37 on Forbes’ list of the 400 richest Americans in 2009. As the executive who makes the big bucks for guiding News Corp., he’s used to making headlines (figuratively and literally).

Murdoch has called out Google on a number of occasions, claiming the search engine steals News Corp. content by displaying a news excerpt along with a link to News Corp. pages. Murdoch’s argument is that the excerpt may be enough to satisfy a reader, meaning that person won’t take the extra step to click on the link and visit the news source. Since most news companies rely on ad support to make money, fewer clicks means fewer dollars.

In a recent interview with Australia’s Sky News (below), Murdoch says that News Corp. is looking at ways to charge visitors to access content. This could include anything from news articles to video entertainment. Murdoch says that companies made mistakes with the Web and should never have offered content for free. He says that Web advertising doesn’t generate the revenue companies are looking for. Personally, I think that’s due to placing too much emphasis on advertising in traditional media rather than on the Web.