RJI survey shows small dailies more likely to charge for digital content

"Small dailies more likely to charge for digital content," Knight Digital Media Center, June 3, 2011.

In more than 300 phone interviews with publishers at a random sample of US daily newspapers, RJI found that 46% of dailies with circulation under 25,000 now require payment for at least some of their digital content. For dailies with circulation greater than 25,000, only 24% now charge.

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The RJI report did not speculate on why more small dailies are charging for some content, nor did it specify which types of content they are charging for. But in smaller communities, generally there are fewer outlets for local news and information—which could make paying for some local news, or for archive access, more appealing than might be the case in larger cities or regions.

RJI researcher Mike Jenner wrote: “Underlying the move to begin charging is a strong belief that audiences will pay to consume quality news content. Two-thirds of the publishers believe customers will pay. Only 14% agreed with the statement, ‘I don’t believe we’ll ever be able to get customers to pay for online content.’”