Personally, you'd have to pay me to read them.

[andrewducker]

[Poll #1543212]

Comments

[mooism.livejournal.com]

Can I vote for next June as well as claiming it might succeed?

The article doesn't say (and maybe NI hasn't said) whether those prices will be charged to foreigners as well, or whether they can continue to read and link for free. Or whether people will be able to read a certain number of pages per day/week before having to pay.

I think news sites will be more likely to get people to pay if they charge for extras (e.g. disclosure of source material, ability to comment, ad-free site), and leave the basic news free. I don't think news sites can get people to pay for news that's available for free elsewhere. But NI are capable of proving me wrong.

[khbrown.livejournal.com]

Wonder if the timing has anything to do with the upcoming election and if there's any behind the scenes deal been done with the Conservatives over the BBC as competition.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

They will have some accountancy group do a study six months in on how it is doing and the ongoing profit potential. That group will take three months to create a report telling them that paid members are simply copy and pasting the stories on their blogs so most people are getting it free anyway, then there will be another six to eight weeks of meetings about the report before they pull the plug on the idea.

[a-pawson.livejournal.com]

If some sort of payment system isn't introduced, then the newspapers will stop investing in their online sites. This idea of simply charging the same as the paper copy for daily access probably isn't the way forward, but they have to start somewhere.

I can imagine a model whereby people download a paper to say a tablet or an iPad working instead of buying the paper copy. Add in a few features like the ability to do the crossword on screen and it could work.

[andrewducker]

Oh, they clearly have to do _something_. I just can't see this being it.

[cheekbones3.livejournal.com]

I thought that a pound a day sounded like quite a lot, but then I wouldn't bother making the effort to pay 10p or something. And it makes the £2 for the week sound much better. I think they'll make enough to survive, but the resultant push of people to other sites may be counter-productive in the end in terms of lost circulation.

[bart-calendar.livejournal.com]

Also, I buy the Sunday Times because it's worth the 5 Euros to read India Knight and Andrew Sullivan in the pub on Sundays. But, I'd pay an extra euro for an edition without Jeremey Clarkston. Because, I know his articles are always going to piss me off but I always get sucked into them anyway.

[lpetrazickis.livejournal.com]

I think newspapers are willing to dramatically shrink their readership as long as the dramatically shrunk readership starts paying for the privilege.

[andrewducker]

This, of course, requires them all to do it at once, otherwise your readership just goes elsewhere.

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

given that most people will not bother signing up to read a free site...

yes

[luckylove.livejournal.com]

I love bugmenot.com

[undeadbydawn.livejournal.com]

That is a fine and noble establishment