Obviously, your answer is that you would pay untold millions to
access Mamamia. That goes without saying. But the issue of paying for
online content just refuses to go away and while it’s something that’s
often debated by me off-line, we’ve never actually discussed it here.
As the BBC reported online (for free) last year:
Murdoch said he was “satisfied” that the company could produce
“significant revenues from the sale of digital delivery of newspaper
content”.”The digital revolution has opened many new and
inexpensive methods of distribution,” he added. “But it has not made
content free. Accordingly, we intend to charge for all our news
websites. I believe that if we are successful, we will be followed by
other media. Quality journalism is not cheap, and an industry that
gives away its content is simply cannibalising its ability to produce
good reporting,” he said.
In order to stop readers from moving
to the huge number of free news websites, Mr Murdoch said News Corp
would simply make its content “better and differentiate it from other
people”.
And as Margaret Simons from Crikey reported yesterday ($150 for an annual subscription):
going to be the media issue of the new decade: whether or not Rupert
Murdoch can succeed in his plans to persuade newspaper readers to pay
for content online.It’s a grand experiment, with success or failure likely to determine a great deal of the future of journalism.
Australian
researchers working with the international World Internet Project have
conducted their first survey on whether and how much Australians will
pay for content online. The results have been released to Crikey, and
they are depressing for Rupert.
Seven out of 10 Australians
would not consider paying anything at all. Young people were
particularly against the idea, with three quarters saying they would
not pay.
It gets worse.
News junkies — those who
turn to the web for local or national news several times a day — are
actually the people least prepared to pay for online news, according to
what they told the researchers. Yet those who turn to the web for news
once a day are the most likely to pay. Go figure. It should be said
that the numbers or respondents involved are small, so the results for
this question should be treated with caution.
The survey also
looked at willingness of readers to consume large amounts of text
online, and found that those who were prepared to read long articles
and essays were slightly more likely to consider paying for them — but
still under half were prepared to pay.
This suggests that ease
of reading could be important, and is relevant to the reports that
Rupert’s plans include a “cool new toy” or exclusive deal with one of
the e-readers shortly to hit the market.
In late 2009, 800
Australian internet users were asked how much they would be prepared to
pay to read an online newspaper, given that a daily print newspaper
cost about $1.50.
The detailed results, with cross tabulations for age, locality and degree of news-junkiness, will be on my blog later today.
Now,
surveys only tell part of the story. It is one thing to ask readers in
the abstract whether they would pay for news, when at the moment they
are used to getting it for free. How they would actually behave if much
of their favoured material became otherwise unobtainable is another
issue.
The “cool new toy” is also likely to have an impact. We
know that people are willing to pay small amounts for data that is
available elsewhere for free, if it is delivered to them on a mobile.
All too often this issue is made out to be about Rupert Murdoch and
News Ltd, media behemouths who do not really inspire a huge amount of
empathy or goodwill among the general population who feel that Rupert
is rich e-bloody-nuff.
But it’s not just about Rupert. It’s about all the independents
(hi!) who don’t have the revenues and infrastructure from old media
assets to fund new media ones the way Rupert and News Ltd can.
This is not a sob story from me so don’t think I’m coming cap in
hand. You can see some ads on this website and yes, we have begun to
earn some revenue around here. For more than two years I didn’t earn a
cent from Mamamia and we are still not in profit but that has been my
decision to launch and maintain my own site. So Don’t Cry For Me
Argentina.
I wanted to start a website. I wanted to connect with others. I
wanted an outlet for my writing. I wanted to create a community of
smart, interesting and supportive people. Becoming Bill Gates was not
my main motivation.
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Top Comments
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I hate that most papers including regional all contain the same junk. Where is variety? different views less hysteria and sensationalism.