Online Paywalls Survey: Very Few Consumers Pay for News Coverage

The number of online newspapers that charge a fee for full access to their websites is growing, and it’s growing quite substantially according to a recently updated study by News and Tech. But do American consumers buy into these digital subscription plans? How many read news online and how many pay for full coverage?

Online News

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 32% of US respondents said they read news online every day. 18% said they read online news fairly often. 29% said they sometimes read news online. 15% said they rarely read news online. And just 7% said they never read news online. Respondents under 35 were actually less likely to say they often read news online. Respondents over 45 were 7% more likely to read news online every day.

Online Paywalls

However, only 4% said they pay for access to multiple news websites. And another 4% said they pay for access to just one news site. 93% said they don’t pay for access to any news sites. Those with at least a four-year degree were slightly more likely to pay for access to news sites.But 8% of respondents said they often come across messages on news sites asking for them to pay for access to the full site. 26% said they sometimes come across these messages. And 22% said they rarely come across these messages. 44% said they’ve never come across messages asking for payment for full access to the site.

News Coverage

It seems that online news isn’t the only type of news that consumers don’t want to pay for. Just 4% said they currently subscribe to multiple newspapers or other types of paid news services. 16% said they pay for just one newspaper or type of news service. And 80% said they don’t pay for any other type of news. Respondents over 45 were just 1% more likely to subscribe to multiple news services and 4% more likely to subscribe to one.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.Photo Credit: Front Page Sydney Morning Herald from FlickrWhat do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.

Results were collected on September 3, 2012 via AYTM’s online survey panel.