Is it worth to pay for reading digital content?
This is the all new digital era. Everything is getting digital. People want the news at their ease and in digital form. Use of paper is decreasing day by day. When the media companies or newspapers started providing their content in digital form, they kept it free for all. The goal was to enter the market and capture readers in digital market. After the huge success of e-newspapers, companies are now concentrating on making profit out of it. Now they want the consumers to pay for this content as they pay for buying newspaper.
Many leading publishers like Times Inc, The New York Times and Hearst Newspaper are the pioneers in this race. They are even planning to provide TV channels online. As consumers pay for cable network, now they will have to pay for online TV. It is actually a cool idea for having access to television network without having a television.
The choice of free and paid news content is a hot button issue today. Various debates are going on to make the result out of it. But the idea of paid content is not as successful as the free content is. People are used to enjoy free things on web like free email, free web hosting, free photo uploading, free web searches, free sms etc. They are a bit hesitant to pay for reading the content. They can read breaking news from any leading portal. Rest of the news is also available there. Then why they should pay for reading entire newspaper?
Moreover, there is a common thinking that people do not pay for news. They just pay for delivery of newspaper. When they are getting this news in digital form, they are paying for internet connection bill, phone bill and electricity bill. Why they should pay for reading the content? Also, media companies are making profit out of the advertisers. They don’t have specific reason to charge from readers. These are the few reasons behind the decreased online traffic of paid sites. There are only a low proportion of readers who are willing to pay for reading content. Debate is still on. There is no clear outcome. What is your thought on it?
Are you willing to pay for reading content?
