The results are in from my second poll: “How much would you be willing to pay to access a news web site?”
Somewhat surprising to me, 77% said they would be willing to pay something, 13% said no and 12% said maybe. Of the people who said yes, 44% voted for $1 a month and 33% voted for $1 a month or $5 a month. I expected there to be more no’s.
A potential confounding factor is that the people who visit this site and probably those who voted as well, are news junkies and not typical of the every day reader.
PEOPLE WILL PAY
Still, I think it shows that people will pay for mediated news, although probably not very much, and it better be unique. One commented summed it up quite well: “[I would pay] nothing unless it was in some large way better than I can get for free.”
I think we can freely define “better” as including “unique” and “well chosen and edited.”
It is clear that the pay-for-mediated-news (note the mediated) angle must be explored.
Earlier post on “portal” vs. “paywall.”
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