UK publishers embrace free content trend

The UK's commercial publishers have seen turnover increase by an average of 53 per cent in the past year despite following the Web 2.0 trend away from paid-for content, according to new research.

The 2006 census by UK trade group the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) found that only 37 per cent of members now charge for branded online content, down from 63 per cent in 2005.

Publishers' major income source is display advertising, which accounts for 41 per cent of revenue. Paid content makes up 18 per cent, of which 78 per cent is from subscriptions and 22 per cent from one-off payments, and sponsorship accounts for 9 per cent.

But for those AOP members that do charge, subscriptions form a significant part of their overall income. More than a third (37 per cent) of publishers who charge for content earned more than £1 million in subscription revenue alone in 2005; 26 per cent earned more than £5m.

Three quarters of publishers reported that 10 per cent of their paid content revenue is from overseas users.

Bill Murray, AOP chairman and managing director of group business information strategy for Haymarket Publishing, said there is "little point" trying to convert consumers that expect web content to be free.

"The healthy online advertising market has probably convinced most publishers that there's little point in sacrificing valuable advertising inventory in trying to convert consumers to paying," he said.

"However, I suspect that within the B2B market and with some of the more interactive, high-value consumer content enabled by broadband, we will see long-term growth in the number of publishers charging for the best content."

Forty-three per cent of members said they do not plan to introduce charges for content - up from 18 per cent in 2004.

More business publishers charge for content than consumer publishers: 40 per cent compared with 34 per cent.

AOP members include the BBC, Economist Group, FT.com, Reuters, IPC Media and CNET Networks and in total produce online publications that reach 68 per cent of UK web users.

The recent consensus on paid content has been that the majority of web users will only pay for content that is unique, such as specialist business information or opinion and comment that cannot be found elsewhere on the web for free. The Wall Street Journal Online successfully charges for most of its content, and the New York Times introduced a controversial paid-access scheme last year for its columnists and archives.

In the UK, the Independent and FT.com charge for some online content, and the Scotsman introduced charges to around 10 per cent of its site in July 2005.

• Earlier this year web development firm Fourio produced an innovation map of Web 2.0, plotting new companies around the World.

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