I think the issue revolves around which platform or device people are consuming the paid for content on.
It’s going to be hard work to get people subscribing or making micro payments to view news on their home PC, but take news out of the home and it could be much easier.
People are getting very used to making payments online for other forms of digital content. These include gaming content through Xbox Live, iPhone applications and of course music.
When doing this most of the time people are making payment through a proprietary device or piece of software, which users have had to specifically download or invest in for the purpose of performing a paid for download. Because of this their readiness to invest further time and money is a more logical step and one they are more ready to take.
If for example I have an iPhone and download a paid for application it brings value to my initial investment in the iPhone, I planned and knew when purchasing the device that I would pay for downloads. The Application is also tangible by the virtue that you can hold the devise through which you have downloaded it in your hand. The same works with Xbox Live, through which you can download games and video content on to your hard drive and own. This is a rather unique situation because Xbox Live is the only place you can get most of this content and the Xbox is the only device on which you can use it.
Because of its topical up-to-date nature and need for virtually instant delivery news is a very different form of media to those mentioned above and so the mechanism through which it is consumed digitally with the possibility for subscription must also be different.
On existing devices it could be very difficult to get people either paying a subscription or making article-by-article micro payments for news content because, perhaps with the exception of iPhone, people have not purchased any of their devices with this in mind.
I believe that with the growth, development and standardisation of eReaders people will be more ready to pay for content. This will be through subscription-based services to weekly or monthly periodicals or for a live news service, which could be charged for using a subscription or based on usage and charged for per article.
When people invest in a piece of technology like an eReader they will want to get value from their investment and an audience for digital subscriptions will grow. Depending on who releases ‘the’ device that changes the way people think about eReaders this could take 5 – 10 years. If Apple release one things could change overnight!
