Why people don’t pay for news and how to make them change their mind
Why are so few willing to pay for quality news? Not surprisingly, price is mentioned as the main reason. A Dutch interview study shows four main reasons why people do not want to pay: price; sufficient freely available news; not wanting to commit oneself; delivery and technical issues. A key finding is that digital entertainment subscriptions like Netflix and Spotify seemed central to how younger participants thought about paying for news.
The study by Tim Groot Kormelink, Vrije University in Amsterdam, is presented in SAGE Journals.
Participants also discussed what in the future could make them consider paying for news: a lower price; a flexible service; a one-stop for reliable news; the added value of higher quality news.
The study suggests services like Netflix and Spotify may even create a rather exact price point in young people’s mind: the price of a shared Netflix or Spotify account.
“The centrality of these digital services to how young participants think about paying for news is further attested by their suggestion to create shareable news subscriptions and by how subscription saturation – or “subscription fatigue” – was a reason not to subscribe to news.”
Another finding that stands out is that when referencing price, participants had a full print subscription in mind, even when their preferred subscription type was a less costly weekend-only or digital subscription.
“More generally, price seemed to be the main category where age played a role in how participants perceived paying for news. Whereas for younger participants budget constraints were a main concern, for older participants it was not so much paying for news itself as the high – and in their eyes unfair – price of long-term subscriptions.”
“It should be noted, though, that participants were relatively highly educated and asumably had a higher than average income; otherwise budget constraints likely would have played a bigger role across age groups. Another finding that stands out is that when referencing price, participants had a full print subscription in mind, even when their preferred subscription type was a less costly weekend-only or digital subscription.
The study says that some participants were surprised by how affordable digital subscripts and weekend-only alternative were, suggesting it could be worthwhile for news media to more strongly advertise these prices. Future research could test the optimal price points for different subscription types.
Participants just generally talked about paying for news in general disregarding if in pris or digital. However, certain categories mentioned for instance that the print newspaper “forced” you into actually sitting down and reading the news.
The stud shows the availability of free news was another dominant reason not to pay for news. “Even if participants realized paid-for news was more in-depth, many considered the news they can freely access online sufficient.”
“Indeed, some even found the news from their trial subscription too in-depth for their particular needs. Others valued the comparatively high quality of the news, but were satisfied with the limited number of free articles metered paywalls allow them to read.”
“Participants were not just wary of being stuck with difficult-to-cancel subscriptions, but also did not want to commit and thus limit themselves to one medium. In addition, they imagined paying for a subscription as a “commitment device”. This was seen both positively and negatively, the study says: Spending money would force them to read the news, but it would also help guarantee they actually do it. This suggests participants have a somewhat ambiguous relation with news: they want to or feel like they should consume it, yet have a hard time getting themselves to do so.
The sample for the study was dominated by 20- and 50-year-olds. It is not unthinkable that people in other life stages would have additional considerations for (not) paying for news.
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