A survey has found that 4 per cent of people would be willing to pay for broadsheets’ web content.
The Digital Entertainment Survey, conducted by Wiggin LLP, found that 12 per cent say they would pay for Facebook or Youtube at an annual rate of £19 and £20 respectively.
But according to the survey, only four per cent would pay £39 a year for their favourite broadsheet (or quality) newspaper.
The survey found that overeallt 37 per cent of people would be willing to pay for their favourite content, which they currently get for free.
The Times and Sunday Times are behind a longstanding paywall, while the Financial Times and Telegraph titles operate a metered paywall, which allows readers to read a certain amount of free stories before charging.
The Guardian, Observer and Independent titles are the only up-market national newspaper titles not to charge for website access.
Reacting to the survey figures as a whole, Wiggin partner Alexander Ross said: “It is heartening to see that a relatively significant percentage of people would be willing to pay for their favourite online content.
“However with an increasing number of services offering content online, it is unlikely that free content will be replaced by paid-for in the near future.
“In fact, we would expect that both business types – the so-called ‘freemium’ model – will persist.”
The findings were based on an online survey of 2,500 UK respondents conducted in March 2013 by Comres.
The full results of this survey will be released by Wiggin tomorrow at a 'summit' of media industry leaders being held at the British Museum.
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