Comments on: PCUK/Harris Poll: Only Five Percent Of UK Readers Would Pay For Online News http://paidcontent.org/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/ The economics of digital content Sat, 25 May 2013 17:24:48 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Gordon Rae http://paidcontent.org/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/#comment-73913 Thu, 01 Oct 2009 18:19:57 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/#comment-73913 Paywalls aren't going to succeed or fail in a vacuum. The package has to be convenient, easy to use, and valued by the purchasers. News publishers are going to have to think about product design as well as protection technologies.

]]> By: Greg Golebiewski http://paidcontent.org/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/#comment-73912 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:50:07 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/#comment-73912 A recent study done by Belden Interactive (http://www.niemanlab.org/2009/09/lots-of-data-to-mull-on-charging-for-online-content/) shows a different picture.

Given the situation that one's favorite online news would no longer be available [as a free site], 54% respondents said they would turned to local TV stations for the news; 39% would check other area newspapers' sites (given they are free), etc. (the respondents were allow to mark multiple choices) . Only 11% would go to "other [free] sites."

Interestingly enough, 32% responded said they would use Cable TV (CNN) as their favorite source of news. Given that CNN is not free, the survey shows that PCUK/Harris Poll might indeed be biased, largely underestimating the Web users' willingness to pay for news.

]]> By: Mark http://paidcontent.org/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/#comment-73911 Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:39:52 +0000 http://paidcontent.wp.gostage.it/2009/09/21/419-pcukharris-poll-only-five-percent-of-uk-readers-would-pay-for-online-ne/#comment-73911 Sorry, but if the possible answers were pre-defined by Harris (and it seems they were), the results might be biased toward the "negative" answers, as they show many options the readers have. If one asks simply, Will you pay to continue to read your favorite paper(s), the distribution will be quite different.

Then, there is the issue of ALL possible differences between free and paid, including perceived quality, favorite authors, favorite format with or without ads, cookies, etc. Then, there is the issue of how easy and safe the payments can be.

Once people start to realize that "another free site" is not the same as "my favorite paper, only without any charges," the breakdown of responses will be a lot more positive towards the paid option.

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