Internet users unwilling to go beyond paywall, says PEJ survey

News organisations looking to paywalls and online advertising to generate digital revenues have "a difficult hill to climb", according to new research from the PEW Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ).

As part of its annual State of the News Media survey, a special report by the PEJ on attitudes to online economics found that only 21 per cent of those surveyed said they rely primarily on one destination for news online and only a third have a favourite website, the report, which is based on telephone interviews with 2,259 adults in the US conducted between December 2009 and January 2010, suggests.

While the majority of 'online news grazers' (57 per cent) use between just two to five sites, only a third of those particpating in the study said they had a favourite news site. Of this 35 per cent, only 19 per cent said they would continue to visit that site if a paywall was erected.

"Instead, a large majority – 82 per cent – of those with a favourite site said they would find somewhere else to get the news," says the study.

"Because so few online news consumers even have a favourite site this translates to only seven per cent of all people who get news online having a favourite online news source that they say they would pay for.

"This is a sign of just how much initial difficulty the movement toward paywalls could have."

News Corporation's much-anticipated plans for paywalls for some of its newspaper websites, including the new Sunday Times site, are expected to go live later this year; while the New York Times is also planning to revisit paywalls in 2011.

There is evidence that a flat fee for access to news rather than a pay-per-click system might be more successful for publishers, but this could create multiple, confusing subscription accounts for readers willing to pay for subscriptions, but who want access to a variety of news sources, the report adds.

"All these findings speak to the natural disadvantage of news content: Most news is covered by more than one organisation and people do not place enough value on the difference between the various reports. In other words, if a user had to pay for a New York Times article on Haiti, evidence suggests that he or she would just look for another source that could provide the basic information. The nuances of depth or breadth in the pay story may not be valued enough to induce payment over a free alternative," says the report.

The study also suggests that, while 81 per cent of users do not mind online advertising because it allows content to be free, 77 per cent have never or rarely click on an online ad: "They don't mind them. They simply ignore them."

The State of the Media survey follows the PEJ report on online news consumption earlier this month, which can be found at this link.

More to follow from Journalism.co.uk on the State of the News Media report...

Free daily newsletter

If you like our news and feature articles, you can sign up to receive our free daily (Mon-Fri) email newsletter (mobile friendly).