The Providence Journal Co. is studying the possibility of charging a fee for a portion of the news and information it currently provides at no charge on its Web site, projo.com.

Howard G. Sutton, the Journal company chairman, publisher, president and chief executive officer, said on Wednesday that the company has assembled an internal team of senior managers “to investigate how we might institute a paid/free model for projo.com.”

Sutton stressed that no decisions have been made. The team will explore options, then make a detailed recommendation — probably in the first three months of next year.

If a fee model were adopted, the earliest it would be implemented would be “some time in the first quarter of next year,” Sutton said in an interview in his office at the Journal’s headquarters in Providence.

The Journal’s study is in the preliminary stages, Sutton said. As a result, a number of details have yet to be fully explored, such as the size of the fee and which news and information would be subject to a fee.

But broadly speaking, he said, “I think it’s safe to say that more detailed news and information regarding events in the State of Rhode Island would most likely go behind the [pay] wall.”

In addition, Sutton said that “our initial thinking” is to continue to provide free access to the Web site for those who subscribe to the Journal’s newspaper seven days a week, charge “a nominal fee” for those who subscribe to the newspaper on weekends only, and a higher fee for non-subscribers.

A number of news organizations — from the Newport Daily News to the Wall Street Journal — charge a fee for at least some of the news and information they provide on their Web sites, and many others have such plans under consideration.

Like other newspapers, The Journal is weighing the option as a way to help protect sales of its newspapers.

“We’re of the opinion that we’re losing circulation revenue by providing our journalism free,” Sutton said. “We don’t want to diminish the breadth and depth of our reporting, so we want to ensure a reasonable cost structure to protect the franchise.”

Business people, and many consumers, understand that it costs money for an organization to gather and distribute news and information, he indicated.

Mark Higgins, dean of the College of Business Administration at the University of Rhode Island, said that charging a fee for at least some online content makes sense from a business standpoint.

Even after news organizations have reduced staff and made other expense cuts, the process of gathering news and information is “still ... a costly process,” Higgins said.

That is especially true for local news, which can only be gathered “with shoes on the ground” by a staff of local reporters, said Robert E. Cusack, partner and chief investment officer at Newport Investment Management, a money manager in Newport.

Sutton said, “Our franchise is providing local news and information to our readers, and we don’t feel it’s a good, long-term business strategy to continue to provide all the news and information on a free basis.”

Many news organizations have come to realize that charging for at least some online content helps to cover the cost of gathering news while also protecting their print products, which are their core business, Higgins said.

Preliminary figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations show that the Sunday Journal’s total paid circulation was 154,300 copies as of Sept. 30, compared with 186,571 at the same point a year earlier, a 17.3 percent drop.

The Journal’s average paid daily circulation was 106,875 as of Sept. 30, compared with 131,620 a year earlier, an 18.8 percent drop.

While part of the declines may be attributed to such factors as the global recession and an increase in subscription and newsstand prices, another factor is subscribers who have opted to stop buying the paper because they can read the material at The Journal’s Web site at no charge, Higgins said.

“If my sole purpose of buying The Providence Journal is the sports page, and I can read it online for free, why would I buy the newspaper,” he said.

Sutton said, “I think it’s clear that one of the main drivers of this discussion is that Rhode Islanders can get almost all of the local news and information that’s in print, online at no charge.”

Higgins said that many other news-gathering organizations — even those that publish solely online — will soon be following suit. “I don’t think they’re going to give it away much longer,” he said.

Some consumers will not pay for online content, but others will, especially if the news and information is not readily available elsewhere, Higgins said. “If you get them hooked, they’ll pay. But I don’t know what the price point is.”

Senior Journal managers are in the process of studying price levels and related issues, Sutton said. If a pay/free model were implemented, The Journal company would probably charge a monthly or annual subscription fee, probably payable by credit card, he said.

Sutton also would not rule out the possibility of a micro-payment option, which is essentially an a-la-carte method for the purchase of individual articles.

He also predicted that consumers would agree to pay for content, whether it is in print or online.

“I think that if people analyze it, and come to the realization that they need accurate, unbiased news and information on a daily basis, that they’re willing to pay for it” in print or online, he said.

ndowning@projo.com