This is a very disheartening survey because it shows how tough it will be for newspapers to make good money off the Internet, which they're not doing at present.
Survey: Readers don't want to pay for news online
NEW YORK (AP) -- Getting people to pay for news online at this point would be "like trying to force butterflies back into their cocoons," a new consumer survey suggests.
That was one of several bleak headlines in the Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual assessment of the state of the news industry, released Sunday.
Read more on the online news survey.
The cost of a newspaper was always minuscule in comparison to the cost to produce it. It is not the loss of $0.50/issue that is killing the newspaper industry.... it IS the loss of ad revenue! I see this story get told time and again by the newspaper industry. The headline shouldn't be "People Won't Pay For Online News;" it should be "People Unwilling to Pick-up Slack as Ad Revenue Drops." It is this refusal see reality by the news industry which is really going to kill the newspaper. The problem is NOT with people refusing to pay for something they always got for free (or pretty darn close). The problem is local businesses don't realize how valuable an ad-view is from a local individual compared to a ad-view from some random person on the internet. Here is a real news story: "Newspapers Need To Do A Better Job Selling Online Ads to Local Businesses." Show how your website can help a local business succeed and your revenue streams will return.