I think the answer to that question is absolutely yes. There is so much content to read on the web and so many news sources, people do not have to pay subscriptions to get good content.

In 1995 there was so much free porn on the web that no one was going to sign up for memberships to paid sites. Soon the free porn virtually disappeared and the porn industry became profitable.

As long as there is free news on the web, charging subscribers to read your news is a bad business plan. A better plan is to make your content better and more appealing than everyone else’s content and sell advertising to make your money.

An example; Here is a website that believes you will pay Rs. 149 per catagory for their news. If Rs stands for India Rupees, then thats just a little over $3 per catagory, so it isn’t too bad, buit others charge a lot more than that and believe you will pay for it.

Here is an online newspaper that wants $75 from you for 10 articles. It specifies that this is for Internet Users among others.

Almost any news you can write about has also been written about on some other blog or news website where you can view it for free. People just aren’t going to pay for what they can get for nothing.

What is your take on this? Do you pay for your news still? I understand if you like to still get your newspaper, but do you pay for your news online? Why?