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UK readers aren't prepared to pay for online newspapers

Friday 28 May 2010 1 Comment

man with newspaper under armAn overwhelming majority of UK consumers have said they would be unwilling to pay £1 a day or £2 a week to access the Times Online if the newspaper does decide to charge for access.

Back in March The Times and its Sunday broadsheet, the Sunday Times revealed it would be implementing charges from June this year. Initially, registered users will be given the chance to access the news sites as part of a free trial before the subscription kicks in.

But it looks as if the decision to charge could cause catastrophic drops in reader numbers, if a survey conducted by Entertainment Media Research on behalf of media law firm Wiggin is anything to go by.

91 per cent of those questioned said they would be unwilling to pay for access to the Times Online, with only a small 5 per cent saying they would be happy to fork out £2 a week for a digital subscription.

There are similar results across the entire range of UK newspapers. Give or take a couple of percentage points most consumers surveyed said they would be reluctant to pay for access to The Guardian, The Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and The Independent too.

After asking participants what they would be prepared to pay for news from a "respectable" newspaper website, the survey found most would stretch to between 50p and £10 per week. However, the majority (52 per cent) thought £1 a week would be the most realistic price point.

When we first reported on the imminent charge back in March a few of our readers had a similar opinion.

This won't be a very good start to the weekend for New International's commercial chief, Paul Hayes, who previously admitted his job could be on the line his paywall plans don't work. Speaking at Haymarket Brand Media's Big Media Debate, Hayes quipped: "If [the paywall] doesn't work then I'm in the s**t. I think that if it doesn't work we face a future of less good media."

Red Top newspaper The Sun is expected to be the next News International site that will be put behind a paywall.

Pleas let us know the amount (if any) you'd be prepared to pay to access the sites of UK newspapers in the comments section below.

 

Comments

  • neutral

    by Alan W at 02:00 on 4 Jun 2010Report abuse

    I can't stand Murdoch so I certainly wouldn't read his propaganda newspapers if you paid me £2 pw to do so. However, 5% of Times readers being prepared to pay is not that bad, I think it's about what is expected. But does Murdoch care? I believe his real aim is to drive online readers back to his print newspapers. He thinks newspapers should never have been free.

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