by News Editor
L. Sutherland
L. Sutherland
The internet is an unrivalled communication tool and information provider, but increasingly it seems that journalists and newspapers are unwilling to give their hard-won content away free. However, a recent survey from independent media commentator site TheMediaBlog.co.uk found that only a third of consumers would be willing to pay for content from News International.
This news group contains titles such as The Sun, The News of the World and The Times and, according to Brand Republic, three quarters of the survey's respondents said that the organisations don't produce enough unique and exclusive content for it to be worth paying for. Additionally, every single respondent said that they wouldn't be willing to pay for celebrity gossip or sport.
Out of News International's titles, The Times has the best response with 21 per cent saying that they believed the paper produced exclusive content. This number dropped drastically when it came to News of the World, with just four per cent saying they thought it offered the same. Sadly, but not shockingly, not a single person felt they were able to say the same thing for The Sun.
The survey follows news from Richard Murdoch, News Corporation CEO and chairman, that his company plans to charge UK, US and Australian users to access its news sites next year. The Financial Times is also planning to introduce a one-click pay-per-article system by next summer with a user friendly interface.
When asked about all of the content currently offered online, 28 per cent of those surveyed said that they would pay to read articles by specific columnists and 13 per cent said that they would be willing to do the same to enjoy access to exclusive interviews.
However, 44 per cent of people agreed that no matter what newspapers chose to do, they believed that they would never find a successful model to persuade people to pay for news online. Instead they simply suggested that readers will be sure to go elsewhere for their news.
