News Corp has bought electronic publishing platform company Skiff and made an investment in Journalism Online, a company which helps publications charge for content.

The two deals come as News Corp prepares to put The Times and Sunday Times fully behind paywalls in the next couple of weeks. Meanwhile, News Corp has also made a £7.8bn offerto buy the 61 per cent of BSkyB that it does not already own.

According to the New York Times, News Corp is “interested in Skiff’s ability to deliver compelling rich media layouts for newspapers and magazines on the web”.