According to a recent study, we’re not overly impressed with Rupert Murdoch’s plans to charge for use of his on the internet news web pages. Of 2,000 people asked if they would ever spend for on the web news, 9 out of ten stated ‘No!’. Does that imply that Murdoch’s selection to charge customers to access his news web-sites is foolish?

I wouldn’t pay for news, either, unless…

If I were asked ‘would you ever spend for on the web news?’, I would most likely say ‘no’, as well. Just after all, in an age when we can typically study about key events on Twitter ahead of any of the news channels report them, why would we ever want pay for access to their content material?

However, I would, and generally do, pay for quality and ‘luxury’ news. I would by no means pay a penny for a single of the shrinking quantity of no cost newspapers handed out on my way to function in a morning, but I would pay for a Sunday broadsheet with all its extras and trimmings (even though the chances of me essentially reading much more than a couple of pages are particularly little).

I have also been known to sign up to a paid members’ location on the web page of a certain football group (which shall remain nameless) to achieve access to extra content not out there on the main web site: video interviews and press conferences, highlights of reserve and youth team matches, live radio commentary on match days.

Would I pay to read The Sun on the net? No. There are usually only about two paragraphs in each and every image-dominated post anyway. It only charges a few pennies to acquire the actual factor so there wouldn’t be a great deal worth in using its web page. The Occasions? Maybe, but only if all other top quality news outlets beginning charging, otherwise I’d just go for the absolutely free a single.

Working with a Credit Card for a 20p Post?

I’m not certain how a great deal Mr Murdoch wants to charge his users to study an post, but I’m guessing there is going to be some sort of account that needs setting up. yoursite.com could not be bothered to get my wallet out just about every time I wanted to read one thing and I would be really hesitant to commit to subscribing.

On the other hand, if they had a similar technique to iTunes, whereby you just enter your password to gain access to a paid article and your card is billed accordingly, that may possibly make a bit additional sense. But, if I had to do that for every single big news provider, it would turn out to be extremely tiresome.

Ultimately, they could be shooting themselves in the foot to some extent. If the web site makes it tougher and less practical for me to read an post, I will in all probability go elsewhere. I would assume that I would constantly be in a position to read the news for totally free on the BBC’s site, which would not be excellent news for the advertising income of the Murdoch online empire.

Copycats

Assuming that I in fact wanted to read an report on a paid website so badly that I handed over my credit card specifics to them, what would quit me ‘reporting’ on what the post mentioned on my freely out there blog? I would think about it would be very challenging for a newspaper group to prevent thousands of bloggers disseminating the info freely to their customers who would achieve lots of targeted traffic in the process.

Recipe for Success?

The achievement or failure of paid news is in the process used to charge and engage with users, assuming that the customers worth the content material very sufficient to deem it worth paying for. The jury is surely nonetheless out on the whole idea and the chances are that many will try and fail ahead of a profitable technique is developed. Till then, we’ll have to wait and see.