Publishers such as New York Times Company and MediaNews Group that plan to charge for access to some content on their websites may cause a majority of readers to seek their news elsewhere, according to a survey.
The Pew Project for Excellence in Journalism found 82 per cent of those polled said they would get their news on different sites if their preferred newspaper began charging online, while 15 per cent would continue to use the site and three per cent did not know.
Times said in January it is studying how to implement a plan to charge NYTimes.com's visitors who are not print subscribers after they exceed a certain number of articles per month. MediaNews will set up a similar system in May for two newspapers in Chico, California, and York, Pennsylvania. "Most news is covered by more than one organisation and people do not place enough value on the difference between the various reports," Washington-based Pew said in a report.
"The nuances of depth or breadth in the pay story may not be valued enough to induce payment over a free alternative."
Pew surveyed 2,259 adults from December 28 to January 19.