Interesting poll currently running (well, at 2:54pm on July 24 at least) on Times Online asking if and how much listeners would be willing to pay to listen to its podcast The Bugle.
Of course this means nothing more than the podcast’s producer’s curiosity over whether its audience would be willing to pay. So far, 41 per cent of respondents have suggested they would pay something; though 59 per cent say they wouldn’t cough up at all.
It’s also quite refreshing to see a newspaper site ask its users outright – whether this means there are any plans to charge or not.
According to a Bloomberg report today, Jonathan Miller, chief digital officer with News Corp, whose News International arm owns the Times, has suggested the group could start charging for news and entertainment online.
Back in June, MediaGuardian reports suggested the Times’ sister title, the Sunday Times, was considering setting up a paid-for standalone webiste.
Not that the poll’s swinging that way, but if people were prepared to pay for the Bugle I don’t think it would hold much significance for other news podcasts or content: I imagine a lot of Andy Zaltzman and John Oliver’s audience are not necessarily regular users of other parts of TimesOnline. Comments beneath its poll worth a read: http://answers.polldaddy.com/poll/1762313/?view=results. For example: from Bono from Neilston: “I will pay 79p per Bugle if you take out the Times Online bit at the start.”
It is also worth remembering that there is a big difference in saying that one *might* be prepared to pay and actually *paying* when the time comes.
Online newspaper readers who participate in this type of poll have a level of sympathy for and awareness of the financial situation for the title and would be more likely to give what I would call a sympathy vote for payment. As with so many sympathy votes it likely wont translate into actual payment.