Bad news for the news industry. In a Harris Interactive survey commissioned by Paidcontent UK, only 5% of those surveyed said they would pay to access news from their favourite news site. 74% said they would seek another free site.
Would you pay to access a news site?
Even allowing for the likelihood that those surveyed will be relatively savvy consumers of online news, and the many options currently available to people, this demonstrates one of the key issues facing news providers today. Paid access to sites can only be a sustainable model if you have access to information that is of real value or if everyone on the web switches to a paid model.
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If 5% of a freemium service visitors convert to a paid account, thats really good. Industry average is under 3%.
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But that is using the economics of the ‘new economy’. The main issue with print is that it has a significant infrastructure to support and at that level, they would be bust.