NewsPay

As American newspaper bosses met in Chicago Thursday to pursue payment for news online, news execs from around the world gathered in Barcelona this week to explore "the power of print."

Among the most useful sessions at the World Association of Newspapers meeting was a discussion of PricewaterhouseCoopers research (PDF) into what it will take for an industry rooted in paper to survive the digital age.

Marieke van der Donk, co-author of a study on paying for news, presented a stiff challenge to an audience perhaps overly comforted by a keynote presentation touting a rosy future for print.

Drawing on nearly 5,000 interviews with consumers in seven countries, van der Donk identified the price people are willing to pay for news online at 62 percent of what people will pay for news in print. The research found Americans willing to pay the most (68 percent) and Dutch the least (38 percent), with consumers in Canada, France, Germany, Switzerland and the UK falling in between.

The study suggests that extracting any of that money will require a lot more than simply throwing existing content behind a pay wall. Key findings:

• Since consumers "will choose the cheapest available product with comparable value," the potential to capture even two-thirds of what's charged for news in print is severely limited by widespread availability of free news online.
  
  
• Although most consumers say they're most interested in general news, that's not the news they're inclined to pay for. Highest potential for paid-for news involves "specialized, targeted and relevant information."
  
  
• Consumers are more inclined to pay for news provided by "high value, topic-specific publications (as opposed to) newspapers providing general news only."
  
  
• Readers of online news "expect to be part of the intellectual debate and to be able to contribute to 'their' newspaper, both in terms of commenting on stories and in providing content."
  

The study suggests that, depending on market conditions, charging for news will get easier in the years ahead "as a result of increased general consumer spending on the Internet."

The study also found opportunity in such areas as financial and sports news, with willingness to pay for high quality online financial information shooting up to 97 percent of a traditional printed newspaper and up to 77 percent in the sports category.

Other potential bright spots, books and travel, also provide the potential for ethical challenges: "Our research indicates that the majority of consumers would consider buying a book or booking a holiday through a newspaper Web site after reading favorable reviews in a newspaper or on e-paper."

Any research attempting to project willingness to pay is limited by the gap between intention and actual behavior. Partly with that in mind, the PricewaterhouseCoopers study relied on a conjoint analysis approach that provides respondents with a series of options as opposed to simple questions about whether or not they'd pay.

In an interview, van der Donk framed the paying-for-online-news challenge like this: "There is demand, but there is so much on offer for free that the market is disturbed."

With general news likely to remain a commodity for the foreseeable future, that suggests the strongest potential for payment lies in "specialized, targeted and relevant" content that's usually quite expensive to produce.

As someone who spent 15 years in publishing before getting an MBA in the Netherlands and becoming a consultant, van der Donk expresses sympathy and support for colleagues still in the business.

"The foundation of newspapers is very important in every democratic society, and there will always be a market for that," she said. "But the market is changing, and the transformation for newspapers is really hard. There needs to be more urgency. We need to lift up asses and get moving. Otherwise we will lose."