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Would you pay for online news?

Thu May 07 03:00PM

It appears that Times are a-changing at News Corporation. According to reports Rupert Murdoch is to start charging readers for accessing the company's newspaper websites.

Buoyed by the success of online subscriptions at the Wall Street Journal the billionaire claims that the news media is going through an "epochal" debate over whether to charge for online news.

In the UK this means that access to websites such as The Sun, The Times and the News of the World will become restricted to those who will pay for it.

These sites are currently being monetised with adverts and it is unclear if that business model will be removed if a subscription charge is introduced, but it would certainly be hard to justify.

Speaking on a conference call with reporters Murdoch said that he was "absolutely looking at introducing fees within the next 12 months," and that "the current days of the internet will soon be over."

It will certainly be very difficult for newspapers to persuade readers to pay for news they can easily get from the BBC, Yahoo! or MSN for free.

"We're not going for the Facebook model of getting hundreds and hundreds of million of people who don't bring any advertising with them at all," he said.

A lack of earnings from newspapers were one of the major reasons News Corp's quarterly operating profits fell by 47%, although a large gain on sale of assets boosted pre-tax profits to $1.7 billion, similar to last year's figure.

So the question lies with you, would you pay to read newspapers online or would you continue with a free alternative?

Comments1 - 10 of 455

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no

From danielruston on Thu May 07 03:10PM
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People will only pay for something that they can't get anywhere else. What a dreadful business model, like you said why pay for something that you can easily get for free somewhere else?
Sounds a bit desperate if you ask me.

From thelumpen on Thu May 07 03:12PM
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In my opinion if you are an ardent newspaper reader, you probably do so, on the train, at breakfast, whilst waiting for your haircut etc. I think there will always be a market for a News PAPER as such. However I and probably many others switch on their computer and it loads up with their homepage which carries topical news headlines and you start reading.......... I certainly am not such a devout "one newspaper person" that I would pay for to read my favourite paper on-line and would guess that the newspaper publisher are having to move with the times - no pun intended. Lets see how they fare.

From kissjenifa on Thu May 07 03:13PM
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me neither!

From webmaestro on Thu May 07 03:14PM
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pay for online news data? NO WAY!

From kjvsmith on Thu May 07 03:14PM
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Why would I want to pay for news items when I can watch the news on TV 24/7 for 'free' as its part of the TV I pay for anyway....

From crocea2003 on Thu May 07 03:15PM
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If the news was of quality and factual, I would pay. Most of what passes as news is not really worth paying for.

From maichibwe on Thu May 07 03:16PM
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No news can be sorced from any whwere why should we pay for something that is free an easy to obtain

From colynn369 on Thu May 07 03:17PM
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I personally wouldnt pay for news that i could get just as easily from free sites. Especially as the "paid" online news sites would still sell advertiing space, there would be no true benefit.
I think there would be a very small market of people - city business types- who may pay but they would be so outweighed by the number of people like myself who consider adverts a small compromise if one gets free news.
Relying on "customer loyalty" in a media as impersonal as the internet would be a very unwise move. We continue to patronise the same corner shop for convenience and personal touches. A pay per view news site would struggle to offer either of these

From thefamily.hughes on Thu May 07 03:17PM
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no i wouldnt register my card details to pay from 20p to £2, just seems us normal folk are being bled dry at every available opertunity

From sophiewren29 on Thu May 07 03:17PM
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