Research finds consumers unwilling to pay for online news
A YouGov SixthSense report into UK media consumption has found that while the majority of UK adults are willing to continue paying for traditional newspapers, 83% would refuse to pay for them online.
Just 2% of respondents are willing to pay for online content in the current format, while only 4% would pay for online even when the content was not available anywhere else.
However, there is some good news for titles such as the Times – which went behind a paywall today – with 10% of 16-24 year olds saying they would ‘definitely pay’ for online access to newspapers.
The report found that 60% of UK adults think that it is worth paying for a ‘good newspaper’. While 18% of the respondents cannot see the point of paying for a newspaper, nearly half (44%) prefer paying for a newspaper because ‘the free ones haven’t got as much real content’.
Men and women seem to have different approaches to paying for newspapers, said YouGov, with a higher proportion of men than women thinking it is worth paying for a ‘good publication’; 70% of men aged between 16 and 24 think it is worth paying, compared with 56% of women in the same age group.