The newspapers may hate it but their attempts to coax or arm twist the netizens to pay for online content are unlikely to produce results. A staggering 85 per cent of Internet users want the “free content to remain free”.
According to a study conducted by the world’s leading survey firm Nielsen, “This sentiment is strongest in Latin America, where 91% of those surveyed favor the status quo. But even in Asia Pacific, where support is weakest, 80% of respondents agree. Furthermore, the opinion is shared by better (more) than 85% of men and women in every age group.”
The findings are likely to take the bluster out of the rhetoric of those newspapers that are planning to erect pay walls around their content.
The survey report notes, “Should the majority of news sources put most, if not all, of their online content behind pay walls, 79% of respondents say they would no longer go to their websites, taking it for granted they can find the same information elsewhere at no cost.”
It is interesting that three out of four respondents believe that if they already subscribe to a newspaper, magazine, radio or television service they should be able to access its online content for free.
Detailed findings of the survey that covered 27,000 consumers across 52 countries can be accessed by clicking here.
Source: The Nielsen Company
url: http://in.nielsen.com/site/documents/PaymentforOnlineContent.pdf
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