Price of information

A new Adweek/Harris Poll survey indicates that most Americans are not willing to pay to read news online, with even fewer saying they are willing to pay than 15 months ago.

Several web publications, including The New York Times, have recently tested different methods of charging for online news and other information.

But the Adweek/Harris Poll found that a large majority said they would be willing to pay "nothing" per month to read a daily newspaper’s content online (80%). Of the one in five who would pay, 14% said they would pay between $1 and $10 per month while very few said that they would be willing to pay between $11 and $20 (4%) or more than $20 per month (2%).

Adweek/Harris Poll surveyed 2,105 U.S. adults surveyed online between March 29 and 31, 2011 by Harris Interactive.

“Currently several major publications charge readers for their content online including the Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, and most recently The New York Times,” noted the Adweek/Harris Poll statement. “Unfortunately it seems that as these companies are adapting to a business environment increasingly dominated by the Internet, their readers are slower to embrace, or are resistant to, certain changes, especially when it comes to paying for something that has been free for so long.  This raises several questions and areas for more research, including: how many Americans rely on the Internet for their news content, how particular are Americans about what publication or source they go to for their news, and, how do people think that media companies with large online presences should pay for the work that they do.”

SURVEY FINDINGS
• Fewer people say they would be willing to pay to read content online now, than said so in late 2009 — 20% say they would be willing to pay for a daily newspaper’s content online today, compared to 23% who said so in December 2009.

• Younger adults are more likely than those older to pay for a daily newspaper’s content online — over a quarter of adults aged 18-34 say they would (26%) compared to between 15% and 18% of all other age groups.

• Men are more willing to pay than women are — a quarter of men say they would (25%) with 18% saying they would pay between $1 and $10 per month, while only 15% of women say they would pay anything to read a daily newspaper’s content online.

• The more education a person has the more likely they are to be willing to pay to read a daily newspaper’s content online — over a quarter of college graduates say they would pay (28%) compared to one in five people who have attended some college (19%) and just 15% who have not attended any college at all.