A document sent to the Newspaper Association of America reveals that Google is planning to unveil a micropayment system over the course of the next year.

The hope is that newspapers will use it in their efforts to find a new business model for their content.

According to the document, first published by the Nieman Journalism lab, the micropayment system will launch as an extension of Google Checkout, a competitor to PayPal.

"While currently in the early planning stages, micropayments will be a payment vehicle available to both Google and non-Google properties within the next year," it reads. "The idea is to allow viable payments of a penny to several dollars by aggregating purchases across merchants and over time."

Google also said newspapers could use the system to charge for subscriptions, though it admitted the subscription-management features are "fairly rudimentary."