An Ipsos survery has revealed that 63 per cent of 501 online adults said they would prefer to access their newspaper of choice by buying the printed copy – while only 11 per cent would choose to access it digitally, according to a report in The Guardian.
Of this 11per cent , most said they would prefer to pay a one-off fee for a mobile application, while 3 per cent of those surveyed said they would opt for a monthly online subscription. Paying for online access per day and per article were the least popular digital options, both recording 1 per cent of all surveyed. In other heartening news for those who have recently invested in print factories, 29 per cent said they wouldn't pay for news online because they prefer having the physical newspaper – 21 per cent said they don't like reading newspapers on screen.
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Unsurprisingly, just over half (51%) of the 15- to 50-year-olds surveyed in May said the biggest barrier to accessing paid-for news online is a reluctance to pay – 31% said they would not pay while it is available elsewhere online for free.
An overwhelming 77% said they had no interest whatsoever in paying for news content online. An online subscription of £6 was the optimal price for those that said they were interested in a monthly charge; a fee of £3.75 was the optimal price for the 18% interested in paying a one-off sum for unlimited access to a newspaper on mobile.
Immediacy, cost and exclusivity proved to be the biggest drivers for people willing to cough up for online news content. Twenty-seven per cent of this crowd said live updates to stories and a reasonable price were the most important factors.
Newspaper executives should look away now. For the 83% that said they had accessed news online in the past month, websites of the national newspapers didn't even make the top five. The top five visited news websites for these users were, in order: BBC News (34%), Google News (17%), Sky News (6%), Yahoo! (5%), and MSN (5%).
A YouGov survey of 2,160 UK adults, also released today, found that 60% of adults think it is worth paying for a "good newspaper", with the majority of those surveyed saying they were generally more confident in what they read in paid-for newspapers, as opposed to freesheets.
The majority of those surveyed by YouGov are also reluctant to pay for online content, with 83% saying they would refuse to pay. Only 2% are prepared to shell out for online content in the current format, while a further 4% would pay on the grounds that content was not available anywhere else.
