Online Journalism Review CanWest Takes Tiered Approach to Pay Content at Canada.com

"Losing money online went out of vogue sometime around the spring of 2000, when the dot.com boom became the dot.bomb. While freebie-lovers everywhere have grimaced at the new tollbooths sprouting up at online content sites, the new reality is simple. We can no longer argue about whether people should pay for some content online; our arguments are limited to what they pay for and how ."

""There's no point in having canada.com with 120 million page views a month if nobody is paying for it," [Leonard Asper, president and CEO of Canadian media giant CanWest] said at a conference in September. "If we lose the page views, fine.""

redux [08.29.03]
Online Journalism Review Newspapers Want to Charge for Content, but Will Readers Pay?

"So our No. 1 concern -- the terrible fad from 2002 was that newspapers have said, "We have had enough of putting our stuff on the Internet for free, and although we have no real proof that we are hurting our circulation, we think that just from anecdotal evidence--that we are."

And so we had a situation in the newspaper industry where everybody was talking about putting their stuff behind a firewall. And I think the threat is pretty much over. We have seen fewer than 30 newspapers go up there and cut people off cold turkey ... because people who thought they could replicate the revenue that they were making from circulation by putting stuff up and charging people on the Web for it -- if they were not subscribers -- it has proved to be untrue."

redux [01.06.03]
ElectricNews.Net Consumer stance on paid content shifts

"New research in the UK, Germany, France, Spain, Italy and Sweden has revealed that 41 percent of European Internet users still refuse to pay for content on the Web. However, this figure has improved from 47 percent a year ago.

Moreover, research firm Jupiter has said that users who have a broadband connection are "significantly" more likely to pay for on-line content compared to those using dial-up. According to the firm, about 25 percent of broadband Internet users said they would pay for music over the Internet, compared to just 18 percent of narrowband (dial-up) users. Similarly, about 18 percent of broadband users claim they would be willing to buy video over the Web, compared to a mere 11 percent of dial-up subscribers."

redux [10.11.02]
BBC News What surfers are doing on the net

"Over half of Europe will be online by 2007 according to a new survey but there are still question marks about what surfers will be prepared to buy on the net.

Jupiter Media's European Online survey revealed that by the end of 2002 only 10% of Europeans will have paid for content online."

redux [04.22.02]
The New York Times Pay Features Gather Steam on Web
[requires 'free' registration]

""The smarter bears in the bunch will be testing different products at different price points this year," she said, noting a recent Forrester survey indicating that one-third of Internet users would be willing to pay for online content next year.

But that means two-thirds of Internet users are not willing to pay for information or services online, which is why Ms. Allen stopped short of exhorting media executives to block off key areas of their Web sites immediately and start charging for entry. Rather, she said, media executives and others hoping to cash in on the subscription trend "have to start acting less like a media company and more like a retailer.""

redux [03.19.02]
Wired News Pay for Content? Ha, Say Users

"To online publishing and entertainment firms looking to start charging for their content, there was a simple message from today's Jupiter Media Forum: Don't hold your breath."

"Seventy percent of online adults surveyed by Jupiter, he said, can't understand why anyone would pay for any online content.

"If anything, people are less willing to pay than they were 18 months ago," he said."

DotComScoop In search of a viable subscription model

"As some of you will be aware, I'm a major critic of 'negative' subscription models. Time and time again we have witnessed websites introduce subscription services that represent nothing more than a closure of existing content.

There are a few exceptions - one being the Internet Movie Database (IMDB) whose subscription model is to my mind flawless. They kept their exist proposition entirely unchanged and brought in a high quality advanced option designed perfectly to cater for a specific sector of their audience. Furthermore they have undertaken to continuously improve the subscriber experience, aggressively seeking user feedback.

IMDB and others have demonstrated that you can introduce a subscription service in a positive manner, and succeed, so why don't more websites follow their example?"

redux [01.15.01]
Seattle Union Record Was 'free' such a good idea?

"As Microsoft, along with everyone else, wrestles with the challenge of how to make money on the Internet, you cannot help but wonder if Bill Gates & Co. regret a pivotal decision in the evolution of the Web.

When Microsoft decided in 1995 to make Internet Explorer and fold it into Windows, the action more than any other may have cemented the concept of OfreeO on the Internet."

"Microsoft won the browser wars but in so doing indelibly emblazoned in usersO minds the conviction that nothing on the Internet should cost money."

Evan Williams Pricing Matters

"Back when I did direct marketing, we were well-aware that people were irrational about pricing. The only way to really find out the right price for a product -- especially an information-based product, for which prices can be so arbitrarily set -- was to test a few, by sending different offers to random samplings, and see which resulted in more profit. Actually, it would be unusual if more than one (or any) of the prices produced any profit at all. And the results were all over the map. A higher price could sometimes bring in not just more money, but more orders, because of the increased perceived value. Then again, a price 20% lower could increase sales by 100%. You could guess but never know, and you were often surprised.O

redux [11.23.01]
The Christian Science Monitor Four different approaches to e-publishing

"While the concept of e-publishing (as most people think of the term; in the strictest sense, everything on the Web could qualify as e-publishing) hasn't exactly set the world on fire, it is still the 'early days.' And like so many things on the Web, is still sorting out its proper place and 'mode of delivery.' The following sites reveal four different approaches to e-publishing - and whether through odd coincidence or 'environmental compulsion,' each one parallels a familiar method of software distribution."

Online Journalism Review Online News Users Have to Pay

"I've been listening to online-news people talk about it with much interest ever since I was laid off 6 months ago as the managing editor of a regional news site for an Internet Industry portal. Most of the old pros say it won't work. The consultants say about the same thing. The Suits? Well, they just don't say.

Yet, people have paid for print newspapers for ages and they don't seem to mind. So what's so different about online-news?

At this point, I think that online-news users have to pay, it's as simple as that."

Web Techniques Inside Salon Premium

"The Web's great free-for-all is coming to a sudden, sharp end. Under today's market conditions, Web companies can no longer expect to sustain themselves by losing ever-larger sums of money to gain ever-larger slices of market share. As more traditional business yardsticks take hold, many companies face the difficult decision to charge for some of their online content and servicesNand users have begun to accept that they can no longer get everything they want or love for free.

Sure, the Web continues to offer a vast, unprecedented array of gratismaterial. But professionally produced sites need to pay their bills, and relying on advertising alone is a risky proposition in an economic slump. As senior vice president of editorial operations for Salon.com , I've become very familiar with these realities. For content sites like Salon.com, charging for subscriptionsNonce considered anathema on the WebNis now an essential move for survival."