Many media owners who have put all their content online for free are now wrestling with the dilemma of how to encourage their users to pay for online content.  My belief is that consumers won’t pay for general news, however cleverly packaged, as there are just too many alternative sources for free.  Much is made of the FT’s subscriptions model, but they are almost playing in a business to business market, where there is an expectation of paying for content.  So are there any opportunities where consumer-facing online publishers can charge for content?  I think there is more mileage in niche topics - where a media owner has exclusive content, and a targeted audience find the information highly relevant and hard to replicate.  Even with the explosion in user reviews, there are still some areas where an expert view or recommendation has more weight and authority than the anonymous poster.  So here are 5 tips for media owners to decide whether a niche is worth testing for paid content: (more…)