Washington - Readers would be willing to pay small monthly amounts for online news, according to an international survey released Monday. Americans were at the bottom of the list of what they would be willing to pay, at 3 dollars a month, compared to Italians who would pay the top fee of 7 dollars a month, the Boston Consulting Group reported in its survey.
BCG questioned 5,083 people in an internet survey that also included Germany, Australia, France, Britain, Spain, Norway and Finland.
Forty-eight per cent of regular internet users said they would pay to read news online, including on mobile devices, according to the New York Times report on the survey. In some western European countries, more than 60 per cent would pay.
"The good news is that, contrary to conventional wisdom, consumers are willing to pay for meaningful content," said John Rose, BCG's head of global media studies.
"The bad news is that they are not willing to pay much," he added.
The print media industry has been dogged by the question of survival for several years as it suffered a drastic drop in advertising, not only because of rivalry from the internet but also due to the recession. Major papers such as The New York Times, Washington Post and Los Angeles Times have laid off hundreds of journalists in the past two years.
Advertising accounts for about 80 per cent of newspaper revenues.
BCG found that consumers had priorities for what they would pay for: unique information, such as local news; timely delivery, such as in a continual news alert system; and convenience of access, on a device of choice.
