Earlier this week, we posted about news titan Rupert Murdoch’s decision to start charging for new content on all of his company’s sites.
Now, Rasmussen Reports brings us a poll on the idea of “pay-for-content”:
Forty-five percent (45%) of Internet users say a plan by at least one major news organization to charge for online content is likely to hurt the newspapers in question financially, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Twenty-one percent (21%) say the newspapers are likely to benefit financially, and 20% say it will have no impact. Fourteen percent (14%) are not sure.
That’s because 77% say Internet users will still be able to find quality news content without having to pay for it. Forty-seven percent (47%) say they are very likely to do so.
We agree with the sentiments expressed by those surveyed — and, to reiterate the point we made in our earlier post, there is a huge opportunity for those who can produce the “quality news content” being sought by those 77% of Internet users identified above.