![Sample our Humanities journals, sign in here to start your FREE access for 14 days]({"type":"image" , "src" : "/sda/5939/TOC-Subject-Sample-2021-Humanities.jpg"})
Abstract
After more than a decade of giving online news away for free, legacy newspaper organisations in many Western countries have recently begun charging audiences for access to online journalistic content. Focusing empirically on a Danish case, this article uses one survey (n = 1054) and two focus groups to examine audiences’ attitudes toward paying for online news. The analysis suggests that audiences’ general principles regarding paying for online news influence their willingness to pay more than the size of the subscription fee. Furthermore, the analysis shows that younger audiences’ willingness to pay increases if they can combine content from different news providers and thereby individualise their news products. The latter in particular can have practical implications as it presents a way forward for economically challenged legacy newspaper organisations, but it might also compromise the democratic ideals of journalism.
Notes
1. For a full overview of subscription on Danish news websites, see the Paywall Watch website on http://paywallwatch.net/.
2. For a more elaborate methodology presentation, see Hansen, Jakobsen, and Hauschildt (Citation2013).
3. According to the newspaper’s own presentation on its corporate website, http://jppol.dk/da/artikler/dagblade/politiken.aspx (accessed 25 November 2014).
4. All amounts are converted from Danish kroner (currency exchange rate: 1 DKK = 0.134 Euros).
5. The questionnaire is available upon request to the authors.
6. It is worth mentioning that the study not only highlights differences in terms of willingness to pay, it also confirms findings concerning age and media use from other studies (e.g. Schrøder & Kobbernagel, Citation2012). So, the survey indicates that when it comes to habits of news consumption, the respondents aged 50 and above first and foremost use news websites for getting a general overview and as supplements to the more traditional news sources (radio, television, and newspapers). News consumption among the younger respondents, however, is centred around news websites and other forms of online journalistic content.
7. All quotes from the survey and the focus groups are translated by the authors.
8. This does not mean that price does not matter. With an optional comment field in the questionnaire, we asked the respondents what would be the appropriate subscription rate for politiken.dk. Among the 190 respondents (18%) who filled out that field, the average rate considered appropriate for the metered subscription model (with, initially, 25 free articles per month) was 6.57 Euros; that is 0.67 Euros more than the actual subscription rate of 5.9 Euros.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Aske Kammer
Aske Kammer, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the Centre for Journalism at the University of Southern Denmark. His research interests lie at the intersection of journalism, media economy and management, and digitalization. More specifically, his work examines digital business models, media regulation and subsidies, and journalists’ use of social media.
Morten Boeck
Morten Boeck holds an MA in Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen. He currently works with media monitoring and media analysis at Retriever.
Jakob Vikær Hansen
Jakob Vikær Hansen is an analyst at Discovery Networks based in Copenhagen, Denmark. He holds an MA in Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen and has several years of experience in the Danish media and TV business.
Lars Juul Hadberg Hauschildt
Lars Juul Hadberg Hauschildt holds an MA in Media Studies from the University of Copenhagen and currently works with art direction, film production, and visual design at MARVELOUS.