Web Users Take Dim View of Paywalls, Ignore Ads, Study Confirms
As news outlets struggle to find a revenue model online, a new study suggests how daunting it will be to persuade users to pay for content. Only 7 percent of Americans who get their news online say they have a favorite news source that they would continue to visit if that site put up a pay wall, according to an annual report on U.S. journalism from the Pew Research Center. The center, which describes the outlook for the online-news business as “grim,” also found that the vast majority of people–81 percent–don’t mind Web advertising. But they also don’t engage with it; almost as many said they never or hardly ever click on ads online.