{"id":3460,"date":"2017-07-07T08:05:06","date_gmt":"2017-07-07T07:05:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/?p=3460"},"modified":"2026-07-05T20:14:23","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T19:14:23","slug":"how-building-trust-in-the-media-can-get-people-to-pay-for-their-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amdf-centre.org\/2017\/07\/07\/how-building-trust-in-the-media-can-get-people-to-pay-for-their-news\/","title":{"rendered":"How building trust in the media can get people to pay for their news"},"content":{"rendered":"
James Breiner<\/a> |<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n
\n

A new study of internet users in Spain shows that those who trust “the media” less are more willing to pay for news online.<\/p>\n

The explanation for this counterintuitive behavior is that those distrustful folks “are willing to pay for those specific media that they trust,”\u00a0according to the researchers\u00a0Alfonso Vara-Miguel\u00a0of the Universidad de Navarra and\u00a0Manuel Goyanes\u00a0of the Universidad Carlos III of Madrid.<\/p>\n

In other words,\u00a0trust and confidence\u00a0have an economic value that media organizations\u00a0can monetize<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Getting people to pay<\/h4>\n

Media economists like to say that the Spanish are legendary cheapskates when it comes to paying for any form of media. But the researchers believe they have identified some of the\u00a0market segments most likely to pay for news.<\/p>\n

They base their conclusions on the\u00a0Digital news report 2016<\/a>, which came from a survey of a representative sample of\u00a02,100 Spanish adults, executed by YouGov and coordinated by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University.\u00a0The most relevant findings follow.<\/p>\n

Young people are more likely to pay for digitial news.<\/h4>\n

Those surveyed were asked “Have you paid for online news content, or accessed a paid-for online news service in the last year?” 10 percent\u00a0of Spaniards answered yes, compared with an average of 13 percent\u00a0in 26 countries.<\/p>\n

Older news consumers in Spain are less likely to pay for digital news and more likely to pay for a print edition of a newspaper, so in economic terms, print is a substitution for digital.\u00a0This is different from the U.S., where those who pay for print are more likely to also pay for digital news.<\/p>\n

The researchers believe that\u00a0because young people consume news almost exclusively on digital devices in Spain, they are more comfortable paying for it.<\/p>\n

The higher the level of education and income, the more likely to pay for news.<\/h4>\n

Internet users with a higher level of education have\u00a0a greater interest in news, which the researchers identified as one of the principal predictors of a tendency to pay. Also, if they have higher income, it is more likely that they\u00a0need specialized content of high quality for professional reasons\u00a0<\/b>and thus are willing to pay for it.<\/p>\n

The editorial independence of a publication is an important factor.<\/p>\n

News consumers who perceive that a media organization is\u00a0free from influence of political and business interests\u00a0are likely to pay for that publication’s content. Again, trust and confidence have an economic value.<\/p>\n

Those who are heavy users to Twitter to stay informed are less likely to pay.<\/h4>\n

People who depend on Twitter to stay informed are using it as a substitute good, economically speaking, for a digital subscription. Those who answered “yes” when asked if they had used Twitter in the last week to to search, read, watch, share\u00a0or discuss the news were\u00a0less\u00a0likely to pay for news online. This finding confirms an earlier study by Goyanes, who showed that\u00a0moderate use\u00a0of Twitter was a significant predictor of likelihood to pay for news.<\/p>\n

Sales of daily newspapers have always been low in Spain.<\/h4>\n

Vara-Miguel and Goyanes did not present data in their study on how much the survey subjects paid for digital news nor for how long. But in an interview,\u00a0Vara-Miguel, my colleague here at the Universidad de Navarra,\u00a0pointed out that\u00a0historically speaking, the percentage of adults who pay for a daily newspaper has been relatively low. At the peak\u00a0in 2000, the number of daily papers sold per 1,000 residents in Spain was 104, or around 10 percent\u00a0of the adult population.<\/p>\n

That figure of 10 percent\u00a0paid print circulation is\u00a0the same as the percentage of people who had paid for online news<\/a>,\u00a0but it should be noted that online news consumers represent only three-fourths of the population.<\/p>\n

In another study by Vara-Miguel, he presented data showing that the traditional news media brands in Spain \u2014 TV, radio, and print \u2014 had not differentiated themselves sufficiently from new digital natives and thus had little hope of getting people to pay for their online content (\u201cThe brand as a differentiator between traditional media and digital natives,”\u00a0original in Spanish, in\u00a0La prensa digital en Espa\u00f1a 2016<\/i><\/a>, IME, Institute for Media and Entertainment.)<\/p>\n

Unless a news organization offers something really different, independent\u00a0and of high quality, its content will be considered a commodity and not worth paying for. High quality is essential, he said.<\/p>\n

This\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0originally appeared on James Breiner’s blog\u00a0News Entrepreneurs<\/a>\u00a0and is republished on IJNet with permission.<\/em><\/p>\n

James Breiner<\/a>\u00a0is a former ICFJ Knight Fellow who launched and directed the\u00a0Center for Digital Journalism<\/a>\u00a0at the\u00a0University of Guadalajara<\/a>. Visit his websites\u00a0News Entrepreneurs<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0Periodismo Emprendedor en Iberoam\u00e9rica<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Main image CC-licensed by Flickr via\u00a0Nathaniel_U<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n