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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?

Comments31 - 40 of 455

No I would not pay for online news.

From rosenthalenglish on Thu May 07 04:05PM
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Definitely not

From dolmcc on Thu May 07 04:09PM
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Never in a million years, where one site charges, another will give for free . Less populairty for the newspaper that charges will probably entail less sales on the newspaper stands. NO NO NO!

From puppy8910club on Thu May 07 04:12PM
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Pay for it!!!!!!!!!!!!
HELLO..... We already pay for it Who ends up funding the wall to wall advertising on news sites

From brianobrien on Thu May 07 04:20PM
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No, I would not pay for on line news. Most of it is bad anyway and becomes depressing so why pay for it.

From jclbarton on Thu May 07 04:21PM
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NEVER !
This is taken the p*ss out of us all !

From cmfamail on Thu May 07 04:22PM
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I havn't had the time to thoroughly read newspapers since I discovered the Internet years ago. It is really no longer important for Mr Murdoch to carry on producing any of his newspapers on or off line.

From tupp_ence on Thu May 07 04:29PM
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In my opinion this is only the thin edge of the wedge. Never mind the newspapers... I bet even now, there is some Government think tank mulling over possible ways to inflict a charge for using the Internet or even introducing a licence fee for owning a computer ...after all, every thing else is taxed or you need a licence. If you fly, fish, drive, marry, watch TV, listen to the radio, own a dog, own a gun, etc, etc. etc. you require a licence. On the plus side however, heaven help any Government who would even dare to consider such a move.
My immediate solution for sites, such as Murdoch's, who propose levying a charge to access their news sites, is simple......boycott them .

From johnlord069 on Thu May 07 04:31PM
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well...mr murdoch..according to me ..you are creating some more illegal jobs .
like the video pirates ..you are giving a chance to some jobless people around the uk to create news piracy and upload that data on their website ,which has similar name to your news website. and they will get more money threw advertisement than what you will get threw subscription..
a great news in recession.

From mehuljadeja on Thu May 07 04:31PM
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i have a vague recollection of there having been paid newspapers sites at one time - i didn´t bother to visit them again, chosing to use only the free sites. i enjoy reading the news online but would not pay to do so - I would turn on the tv news channels instead.

From annstubbings on Thu May 07 04:32PM
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