I’m currently listening to Matt Wells interview Lionel Barber, the editor of the Financial Times, on Media Talk. At just before five minutes in, he asks (essentially) if people will pay for news.
Mr Barber:
If they feel that it’s distinctive enough and it’s different… you’ve got to be different… set yourself apart from the common…
If you’re [a] distinctive, premium brand then there [are] opportunities.
Now that everyone’s talking about paying for content, it’s probably a good idea to look at what we pay for. I’m not talking about picking up the Guardian occasionally. I’m talking about subscribing (or buying every, or almost every, issue).
I’ll start:
- The Economist (print subscription),
- Z Magazine (Monthly donation, giving online access),
- Frontline Broadsheet,
- National Geographic (print subscription).
I also have a free student subscription to FT.com, and will very seriously consider a paid (but online only) subscription when it expires.
So, what do you pay for?
Original WordPress comments:
Dave Lee:
Very little. In fact, with your rules (subscriptions) I don’t pay for anything at all. That’s why I’m yearning for micropayments to become the norm. I read/listen/buy on a whim – I rarely want to commit to paying a big fee for anything.
Case in point: I’ve bought every Ricky Gervais podcast since they started. I could have subscribed and saved a few quid, but instead I ended up just buying individually. I hate the idea of subscriptions.
Rob Wells:
I think that’s going to be the case with a lot of people.
What really surprised me when writing this post was how much currently-free content I would be willing to pay for. I think that causes lists like this to lack much meaning — this is what I currently pay for, but there’s so much content that I’d be willing to pay for that I essentially can’t.
The problem is that the natural follow up this post — “What would you pay for?” — would attract vastly varied responses, to the point that it’s a useless question. I think the only thing that will give meaningful information is if an organisation actually implements a form of micro-payments.
(And the rules are simply ‘regularly purchased’ — i.e. income that organisations can fairly safely expect, not necessarily just subscribers. Though subscriptions are the most obvious form of that. Your habit of buying the Ricky Gervais podcasts would definitely counts.)
