Would you pay for online content?

Rupert Murdoch has announced plans to make users pay for online news content on websites owned by his companies.

This is a major development for online news consumption. It also reflects just how bad things are for the print world when big media houses are considering milking revenue from what started as something of a value-added extra to the paper on your desk in the morning.

The key question is of course, with all the outlets on the net that give news, would anybody pay? Or at least enough people to make this a viable decision? Murdoch defends it with the statement that “quality journalism is not cheap” and true as that maybe, the internet owes a lot of its development and growth to people looking to score news and media on the cheap or freely. It’s the world biggest infotainment bargain bin. It is also certainly not short of substitutes for Murdoch’s news outlets. So, are his big draw titles and the brand capital they carry really going to be enough to sustain this move?

I don’t believe so, but Murdoch is a wily old geezer and he may well have a trick up his sleeve. It should be interesting to see this one unfold.

The question I pose to you dear reader, is, would you pay for news online? And why (not)?