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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?

Comments11 - 20 of 455

No

From greigmn on Thu May 07 03:18PM
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What is the point? Why pay to read an article somewhere online, when you can easily find it on some other website for free? Sounds as useless as itunes.

From squigglyhopper on Thu May 07 03:19PM
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I'd pay for unbiased, factual news with no celebrity nonsense tomorrow. So bored with sifting through useless trivia.

From mariejames on Thu May 07 03:22PM
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No way - there is plenty of UN-BIASED news on the web for free!

From garenacreman on Thu May 07 03:22PM
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No. NO. No.
Newspapers need to look within their news items to realise that the news they are reporting is rubbish most of the time and not even newsworthy. So if they are losing on selling newspapers they are not reporting what people want to read and as the saying goes, "People are walking with their feet" So If I do not want to pay for a newspaper, I will not pay to read it online.

From dianeplant on Thu May 07 03:25PM
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The Newspapers will ultimately fail in this regard. There will be subscribers, ie those who want e-newspapers so they can trawl selectively and carry out research, but the general public will probably only respond in low numbers. There will always be sites which will provide free content, and they will simply take the place of the "establishment"- take a look at the Metro as an example. However, I would not be so sure that if the News Corp's plans took off, large portals like the BBC would not follow, there would be a hue and cry over the licence fee if they did not.

From dan.freedman on Thu May 07 03:27PM
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I would certainly pay to see it REMOVED from TV,Radio and the Internet AS I AM SICK TO DEATH OF THE BIASED PROPAGANDA.If you could get a good news program going on then it would be worth a gander.THE TRUTH WILL OUT!!

From goldenbeast69 on Thu May 07 03:28PM
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tHERE IS NO SUCH THING AS FREE NEWS WE PAY FOR IT ONE WAY OR ANOTHER

From brickylorraine on Thu May 07 03:28PM
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why is everyone intent on draining the public dry. everyone is so greedy, thats why the country is in the state it is now, GREED, GREED and more GREED. i wouldnt pay for this not when I can see it on the telly anyway. So carry on and see where you get.

From a.bowman651 on Thu May 07 03:29PM
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What, pay for a constant stream of fearmongering, disinformation and trivial tat? Nope. Readership figures are in decline because the msm print garbage, and people are wising up to it.

From premiumdv on Thu May 07 03:32PM
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