Cablevision Systems Corp. (CVC) will this summer deploy an online subscription model for Newsday, the Long Island-based tabloid newspaper it acquired last year, said Chief Operating Officer Tom Rutledge on Thursday.

Rutledge made his comments on a conference call with analysts following the company's first-quarter earnings release, in which Newsday posted revenue of $83.4 million, down sharply as the publishing industry continues to flounder amid a decline in advertising and the rise of the Internet.

Rutledge signaled that Newsday would experiment with an online subscription model earlier this year, and the company is expected to make Newsday available online to its cable subscribers.

Newspaper observers are watching Cablevision's strategy closely as the publishing industry struggles amid the advertising downturn to generate revenue from online audiences, which have become accustomed to reading news online free.

-By Nat Worden, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5216; nat.worden@dowjones.com