Only four per cent of Canadians said they’d be willing to pay for news online, according to a study by the Canadian Media Research Consortium, which also suggests Canadians have not been keen to pay for much digital content at all.
Another 15 per cent of the 1,682 adults polled for the study said they were unsure if they’d pay for their favourite news site, but an overwhelming 81 per cent said they definitely wouldn’t.
Almost 30 per cent said they would either “definitely” or “probably” pay for online news but only if there were no other free options available.
Consumers were most likely to consider paying for breaking news (28 per cent), hard news (22 per cent), international news (19 per cent) or investigative reporting (18 per cent).
The study also found it was not just news that Canadians were reluctant to pay for online.
Only about one in four Canadians said they pay for music online — at time when sales of CDs are plummeting — 19 per cent said they pay for online games, 12 per cent downloaded ringtones, nine per cent paid for digital movies, and eight per cent bought ebooks.
For those willing to pay for news, the favoured payment method was via a flat-rate subscription, with 34 per cent wanting that option. Consumers weren’t big on the idea of micropayments, with only six per cent wanting to pay for news daily, and four per cent wanting to pay per story.
If news were free, 82 per cent of respondents said they would be OK with being subjected to advertising around the content, while the remaining 18 per cent were split between being opposed or unsure.
But only 19 per cent said they’d be willing to trade some personal data in exchange for free news, and 58 per cent said they definitely wouldn’t. The remaining 23 per cent were not sure they’d be willing.
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Link to Canadian Media Research Consortium report: http://bit.ly/haW3Fv