What's a news executive to do when his newspapers are about to go behind a paywall and he needs to make sure the risky business decision isn't later revealed to be foolish?

Clamp down on transparency of course!

At least that's what News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch is doing.

Robert Andrews of PaidContent writes:

With nearly a month to go before News International raises its first paywall in June, both Times Online and Sun Online have stopped publishing their user numbers through the ABC in the UK.

March monthly figures for UK newspaper sites were issued Thursday - but both Murdoch sites are absent.

ABC confirmed to paidContent:UK that it is still auditing the publisher's traffic numbers - but it is keeping the figures private at News International's request and, at present, publication is not due to resume next month.

This means it will be hard to see exactly how many readers Times Online will lose when it starts charging £1 a day and £2 a week starting June.

The thinking goes a little something like this: If people know how many users currently visit your website and they find out how many users continue to visit your website once the paywall goes up, then they will be able to determine precisely how successful (or not) your decision to put up that paywall was in the first place.