In case anyone was holding on to the idea that News Corp (NYSE: NWS). chairman and CEO Rupert Murdoch might pull back on his Davos comments that WSJ.com would be a hybrid model, time to give it up for good. Murdoch used today’s earning’s call to stress how very much he values Dow Jones’ subscription success. He mentioned the expanded free content like opinion and promised more (stories from personal finance, politics, and the business of life, as well as blogs and videos) but said “the bulk of the Journal’s core business coverage will remain behind the subscription wall.”

Murdoch, still selling the acquisition to his own shareholders, said he thought DJ had “boundless potential” before News Corp. bought it but he’s even “more excited by its prospects now.” The greatest growth opportunity: “strengthening DJ’s s online assets. ... It’s there where we are spending our most concentrated time and where we think we can achieve exponential growth with several new initiatives.” He spoke of broadening global reach “to make the online Journal the most profitable subscription based financial site on the Internet today.”

He also invoked subscription income as one of the reasons for News Corp.’s lower exposure to the U.S. economy and ad market, mentioning the major effort “over the past 10 years into rapidly developing our subscription businesses.” (That’s primarily true for cable and satellite.) Murdoch also talked of investing “smartly” in the media :"where we think the greatest growth potential lies, including social networking and other online extensions of our mature businesses.”

During Q&A, Murdoch went into more about what might be free—items “that are basically commodities that you can get free elsewhere ... will be in our new, wider online service.” But “unique information” will be subscription. Also, as new niche sites come online, “some of them will be extremely valuable.” He cautioned not to expect instant results—“it’s not going to happen in the next three months.”

Update: A little more color on Murdoch’s Journal plans:

-- The luxury mag set for September launch “will initially reach more than 800,000 people”—and we are looking at ways to broaden the paper’s readership and advertising by augmenting its editorial content to feature more political, international, cultural, and general national news. “We’ve already initiated several changes in its look, beginning with today’s redesign of the front page and more changes in the works.”

-- The Journal is also working closely with Fox properties to share video, news, business content.