Are newspaper publishers nervous about putting their content behind a pay wall? Rupert Murdoch admitted Wednesday that his plans to charge for online content from the New York Post and other papers he owns are behind schedule.

Now MediaNews Group is saying that it won’t try to charge for content until it has tested the concept at two of its smaller papers, the Enterprise-Record in Chico, and the York (Pa.) Daily Record. The two papers will test the concept of charging for content sometime in the first quarter, according to an E&P story.

That suggests the online content of the MediaNews papers in the Bay Area will remain free for several more months.

MNG chief executive Dean Singleton told E&P that an all-pay model is unlikely, and that each newspaper will decide what content it will sell to readers.

“It will not be a cookie-cutter approach,” Singleton told E&P’s Joe Strupp.