Significant rise in number of people paying for digital news
A large-scale Oxford University report shows that over the last 10 months there has been a significant shift in public attitudes towards online news - with more people willing to pay or expecting to pay for it in future. Of the 2,000 internet users surveyed in the UK, 9% had paid for online news compared with only 4% last year. The survey of 11,000 internet users across nine countries, including the UK, is one of the biggest studies of online news habits ever carried out and is the second of the annual Reuters Institute Digital News surveys, published by the University's Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism (RISJ). You Gov online polls commissioned by RISJ were conducted in the UK, US, Denmark, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, urban Brazil and Japan. The Reuters Institute Digital News Report 2013 identifies 25-34 year olds as the age group most willing to pay for online news across all nine countries surveyed, including the UK. This age-group represents one quarter of those with an annual income of £25,000 to £50,000. The report suggests that this relative affluence may be one reason why they have embraced digital news and are willing to pay for it.
