Today, online news media companies have the perfect pretext for monetising online media content via a subscription or paywall. They believe that they are responsible for delivering accountable, truthful, accurate news in the age of fake news. However, to what extent we are willing to pay for online news, which has been free for a long time?
The rise of social media has changed the way people consume and produce content and the revenue structure of the online news media industry. For instance, Kumparan, a digital-born news media since 2017, launched Kumparan+ in 2019. Kumparan+ provides a platform where content creators, writers, and experts can post their content in multimedia format, from in-depth articles to videos and podcasts. The subscribers can comment and share the content to other social platforms. Unlike other social media or online community platforms, content published on Kumparan+ is scrutinised by the editorial team of Kumparan to ensure only high-quality and credible content is served to subscribers.
Dea Anugrah, Kumparanplus' Editor, said that the business model could motivate journalists, writers, and creators to work better and remain independent as no advertiser can violate the originality of content. Hence, people can expect transparent and honest efforts and eventually spend their money appreciating the creators and the works.
The online news media industry's subscription model or paywall system remains a long-standing debate. In Indonesia, some media companies still face challenges in adopting a paywall system due to societies' perception that the information on the Internet is free. However, it is surprising that the number of Indonesians (19%) who pay for online news is higher than in some Asia Pacific countries. It could indicate that the subscription model may be a potent revenue stream for online news media companies. There are also strong reasons why people pay for online news in Indonesia. Subscribers are mostly satisfied with the 80% (out of 100%) value they get from paid news.
Online media companies may need to consistently increase awareness and trust towards paid online news media to make the subscription model work. Kumparan uses strategies to attract audiences to subscribe, such as sharing teasers on social media, making discounted subscription fees, and enabling various online payment options. In addition, online media companies may need to learn from The Guardian and The Times in tweaking the subscription business model to make the service more favourable to readers.
Are you willing to pay for online news?
Why do you pay for online content? Please share it in the comment section!
"If we meet the audience demand for good journalism, the business problems can be solved." - Mark Thompson, former CEO New York Times
Hi Pheseline,
You have made a lot of good points in your blog and I agree that the need to bypass a paywall to get access to new articles and journals is a contentious issue for everyone. For example in Australia, market research conducted in 2019 found that Australian news consumers would rather pay for entertainment services than news, with only 9% choosing online news subscription as their first priority from seven different types of digital subscription services. I personally also don't feel like paying for news services either as I have other priorities in mind,
The contention News paywall regulation the Australian government is pushing last year was also interesting. It just brings more attention to the difficulty of…
Hi Pheseline
Online News is an interesting topic in Australia too, when it comes to where and how you source it and what you are paying for. 63.9% of Australian internet users have expressed concern about what is real or fake on the internet, imagine compounded by Cambridge analytica, the USA election and QAnon. In 2021 Australia also passed a bargaining code responding to search engines and social media not paying for their shared news content. Facebook removed the ability for any news to be shared on their platform temporarily in Australia.
Whilst I am still a fan of the printed paper, news - up the second news is online. And the source of that information needs to be credible.