Online publishers, whether they have a heritage print business or not, are all convinced they have to find ways to charge readers for their online content and services. For newspapers, who have seen their ad revenues tumble, it’s a matter of survival.  But how to work out the method of charging and the price the market will bear? There’s plenty of contradictory research out there, with paid content’s survey implying subscriptions are preferable to micropayments, while continental’s recent survey says the opposite, and predicts the rates will be in pennies. But most of these surveys focus on news, which to my mind will mostly have to be free. So what guidance exists for the “ordinary” consumer or b2b online publisher, who isn’t a national news organisation?  I think that the surveys are misleading, as they are testing a hypothetical decision. Better to track what other publishers appear to be charging for different packages of content. Assuming all general news has to be free, here are 5 other categories of online paid content: (more…)