A Victoria University of Wellington student is exploring ways to fund quality journalism online, including developing a tool that allows people to purchase an online package of news from several publishers.
Led
by Alex Clark, a Master of Advanced Technology Enterprise student, the ‘News,
Renewed’ team surveyed 457 newsreaders to explore their willingness to pay for
news online.
“We
found that consumers’ are willing to pay, but only if the news is presented in
a format that they want. It’s all about the convenience,” says Alex.
The
survey asked respondents about their news reading and media consumption habits,
and their willingness to pay for news in different ways—ranging from donations,
crowd funding, buying a mobile app or purchasing individual articles. Packaging
was by far the most preferred purchase method.
“People
have multiple trusted online sources, so hate the thought of paying for each
site or news item individually. If news from several publishers is bundled
together, then the proportion of people willing to pay increases dramatically,”
says Alex.
An
interesting finding, says Alex, is that 18 to 30 year olds, who are the most
difficult to get to pay for news, are the demographic most likely to purchase a
global package of news—“twice as likely as the average”. He compares that to
young peoples’ willingness to purchase ‘all-you-can-eat’ digital music
subscriptions.
“There’s
a perception that young people want to pirate everything and free load, but
it’s not actually true—they’re just fed up with paying for every unit of
content individually.”
Alex
says compared to other types of media such as music, books and television, the
journalism industry is struggling to adapt online.
Based
on his findings, Alex developed a prototype that provides paywall
technology which easily integrates into existing news websites, allowing paying
subscribers to unlock premium content across all partner websites.
The
prototype is based on a revenue-share model, where a pool of subscription fees
is equally distributed based on consumption of content. Alex is in the process
of showing the tool to publishers, bloggers and journalists.
There
are a lot of variables within the system, explains Alex. “One model that works
well overseas is having general news available free, with exclusive stories
behind a paywall. Other publishers prefer putting all news behind a paywall,
with readers getting a number of free views each month.
“The
reaction has been that this is the model of the future, but that it’ll be
extremely difficult to implement. Publishers fear losing control, but the key
with this prototype is that it allows publishers to maintain control and
independence while also collaborating,” says Alex.
For
more information visit www.fundingnews.co.nz