AOP census: 70 per cent of members plan to charge for some online content
Association for Online Publishers' survey suggests only 30 per cent of respondents have no plans to charge, while mobile is a priority
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A survey of around 40 Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and PPA (Periodical Publishers Association) members showed that more major publishers plan to charge for online content than was the case two years ago.
While 54 per cent indicated they had no plans to charge for content in 2007, 70 per cent said they now would, or will continue to charge.
The seventh annual AOP census survey questions its members, including many of its 27 board members and additional PPA members, which include major UK news organisations, broadcasters and magazine publishers, about online content and development.
Of those who said they would charge in the next 12 months, one third said they would use a micropayment model.
Members who indicated that they 'plan to charge' for content highlighted special reports (26 per cent); downloadable apps (26 per cent); archives (16 per cent); and specific mobile content (16 per cent) as the top areas within which they would implement a paid-for system.
Publishers' answers referred to all their publications, but the AOP confirmed that could include different payment systems for various titles within the same group.
Six or seven newspaper groups were among those surveyed; no further breakdown was available from the AOP.
The most important development identified by the survey was the mobile web: 85 per cent rated this as a high opportunity, when asked to scale the significance of forthcoming developments.
Eighty-three per cent of members surveyed said the iPhone has transformed mobile internet as an opportunity for publishers.
In answer to the question, 'what distribution channel will become more important in the next 12 months?', 69 per cent of respondents said mobile, while 67 per cent said mobile apps.
The rise of the iPhone has been a 'pivotal moment' for publishers, Tim Cain, head of research and insight of AOP told Journalism.co.uk, and 'opens up the market for mobile'.
"A strong vote for mobile and mobile apps is encouraging for the industry as a whole; and use of Twitter is a particularly interesting development in terms of use of new mechanisms to publish content," said Lee Baker, the new director of AOP , in a release.
Almost all publishers said they were enthusiastic to embrace social media (95 per cent): more than half now publish content through Twitter (57 per cent), while just under half publish through Facebook (48 per cent) and YouTube (45 per cent).
User-generated content is expected by 60 per cent of those questioned to account for a growing proportion of online content, the AOP reported, with 10 per cent believing the balance of content will become more professional, while 31 per cent said it will stay the same.
