Based on a recently available study, we’re not overly impressed with Rupert Murdoch’s plans to charge for utilization of his online news sites. Of 2,000 people asked if they would ever purchase online news, 9 out of 10 said ‘No!’ ;.Does that show that Murdoch’s decision to charge users to gain access to his news sites is foolish?
I wouldn’t purchase news, either, unless…
If I were asked ‘would you ever purchase online news?’, I would probably say ‘no’, too. After all, within an age whenever we can usually learn about major events on Twitter before some of the news channels report them, why would we ever want purchase access for their content?
However, I would, and often do, purchase quality and ‘luxury’ news. I would not pay a cent for among the shrinking amount of free newspapers passed out on my method to work in a day Nigerian Newspapers, but I would purchase a Sunday broadsheet with all its extras and trimmings (even although the odds of me actually reading greater than a few pages are incredibly small).
I’ve already been known to join a settled members’ area on the site of a specific football team (which shall remain nameless) to access extra content not available on the key website: video interviews and press conferences, highlights of reserve and youth team matches, live radio commentary on match days.
Would I pay to learn The Sun online? No. You will find usually only about 2 paragraphs in each image-dominated article anyway. It only costs several pennies to get genuine so there wouldn’t be much value in which consists of site. The Times? Maybe, but only if all other quality news outlets starting charging, otherwise I’d just go for the free one.
Using a Credit Card for a 20p Article?
I’m not sure just how much Mr Murdoch really wants to charge his users to learn a write-up, but I’m guessing there is going to be some kind of account that requires setting up. I certainly couldn’t be bothered to get my wallet out every time I wanted to learn something and I will be very hesitant to commit to subscribing.
On the other hand, if they’d a similar system to iTunes, whereby you merely enter your password to access a settled article and your card is billed accordingly, which may make much more sense. But, if I had to achieve that for every major news provider, it would become very tiresome.
Ultimately, they could be shooting themselves in the foot with a extent. If the site makes it harder and less convenient for me to learn a write-up, I’ll probably go elsewhere. I would think that I would always have the ability to read the headlines for free on the BBC’s website, which will not be good news for the advertising revenue of the Murdoch online empire.
Copycats
Assuming that I actually wanted to learn a write-up on a settled site so badly that I handed over my bank card details to them, what would stop me ‘reporting’ on what the content said on my freely available blog? I would imagine it will be very hard for a newspaper group to stop a large number of bloggers disseminating the information freely for their users who would gain plenty of traffic in the process.
Recipe for Success?
The success or failure of paid news is in the strategy used to charge and engage with users, assuming that the users value this content highly enough to deem it worth paying for. The jury is certainly still on the entire concept and the chances are that numerous will try and fail before a profitable system is developed. Until then, we’ll have to attend and see.