This debate is now closed.
Would you pay for your news?
News Corp, which owns the Times and Sun newspapers in the UK, is to start charging online customers for news content across all its websites. How much would you pay to read news online?
The media giant is looking for additional revenue streams after announcing losses of $3.4bn (£2bn) in the year to the end of June.
Chief executive Rupert Murdoch said “We intend to charge for all our news websites. I believe that if we are successful, we will be followed by other media”.
In order to stop readers from moving to the huge number of free news websites, Mr Murdoch said News Corp would simply make its content "better and differentiate it from other people".
Is this a good move for News Corp? Is this the way forward for other news websites? Will this improve the quality of journalism?
Read the full story
Send us your story ideas
Published:
Thursday, 6 August, 2009, 09:43 GMT
10:43 UK
All comments as they come in
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 14:21 GMT
15:21 UK
News, yes
The Sun - are you kidding?
Susan Smith
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 13:10 GMT
14:10 UK
Never read the Sun or the Times anyway. Never listen to commercial radio. Perhaps I'm a bit boring, but newspapers forgot the "news" element of their job description years ago. Now it' all entertainment rubbish, and only telling us what they think we want to hear on anything else.
Brian, Gloucestershire
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:56 GMT
13:56 UK
Certainly not!
Why would I want to pay to read slanted 'news stories' when I can find out for free via the BBC or other sources.
Ian, Wakefield
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:54 GMT
13:54 UK
No I wouldn't I will just watch the news which I pay for with my SKY TV subscription and licence fee, we all ready pay enough for those,and internet connection.
Mrs Jones
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:53 GMT
13:53 UK
Rupert Murdoch is sadlly deluded if he thinks people will pay to see The Sun's contents online. When catering for the lowest common denominator that's what you're going to get reading (if they're capable) and they won't pay.
I'm sure it's going to be a spectacular failure when there are many more high quality news outlets providing news for free.
Rebecca Bradbury, Exeter, United Kingdom
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:49 GMT
13:49 UK
If they're still putting adverts on their sites, there ain't no way on this side of Heck that I'll ever go to a pay website.
Maybe if News Corp's constant agenda-spewing tripe actually turned into a respectable unbiased news service they'd be worth viewing/reading and they would get enough custom to make money, instead of having such losses.
At the end of the day, I'm sick of too much news. We're overloaded and it's making us a country full of miseries, ready to pounce on anything.
[chiffington], Sutton, United Kingdom
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:47 GMT
13:47 UK
Would I pay for my news? Absolutely not. There are plenty of places where news is available for free and probably always will be. If they can rely on advertising revenue, why can´t News Corp?
Graham Rodhouse, Helmond, Netherlands
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:35 GMT
13:35 UK
I will not miss them, there are plenty of good internet news sites to choose from. News papers and TV news collect revenue from advertisers, plus they sell the papers. If they can't make a go of it from those sources, hasta la vista!
Neal, East Lansing
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:35 GMT
13:35 UK
no way because it will be easier to get the news online than spend money
Catherine Oliver, Crawley, United Kingdom
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:34 GMT
13:34 UK
No chance, news is free from all kinds of sources and always will be!! But there will always be someone out there with more money than sense willing to pay.
They charge enough already for their dross and I wouldn't pay this company a penny. Never had Sky and never will, they charge you to watch adverts, how ridiculous is that. Couldn't be more pleased about their losses.
Poopert Murdoch
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:33 GMT
13:33 UK
No, I will not pay. The fundamental problem newspapers have created for themselves is that they have chosen to replicate their content online. In fact most enhance it online with the latest news.
They should have retained value in their hardcopy publications by reserving a chunk of content exclusively for them. Equally, if you want me to pay to access news online, deliver me additional or better content through that medium.
[AndyPLondon], London, United Kingdom
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:32 GMT
13:32 UK
News on the internet should be free.. If they start charging I will simply go to other websites to view the news..Maybe one day the whole internet will have different charges for each site, hopefully not, as that will be bad news
[singingbeetle], Witham, United Kingdom
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:32 GMT
13:32 UK
News Corp would need to pay me to read their junk.
There’s only one publication worth my attention and time. The FT.
tony ferris, st albans
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:26 GMT
13:26 UK
As the saying goes - No news is good news.
[chrisk50]
|
Added:
Friday, 7 August, 2009, 12:18 GMT
13:18 UK
The days of free news on the internet are over.
harry portsmouth
|
|
This Have Your Say is
CLOSED
DEBATE STATUS
Total comments: 3038
Published comments: 2513
Rejected comments: 191
From Have Your Say
|
News and analysis
