The Newspaper Association of America has asked for proposals on ways to easily charge for news on the Web, and has received responses from some of the world’s top tech companies, including IBM Corp., Microsoft Corp., Oracle Corp. and Google Inc.
“But,” says Associated Press Business Writer Andrew Vanacore, “building the infrastructure for charging readers is one part of the equation. The other part looks more challenging: getting publishers to make the leap and stop giving news out for free on the Web.”
Among the 11 proposals received, “Google proposed offering news organizations a version of its Google Checkout system, which is used for processing online payments. It would give readers a place to sign in to an account and then pay for media from a variety of sources without having to punch in their information over and over. And the company says it could offer publishers several pay methods, from basic subscriptions to so-called ‘micropayments’ on a per-article basis,” the AP report says.
“Publishers are nervous about scaring off readers. Charging for news online may open a new source of revenue for struggling newspapers but also could choke off Internet ad dollars by driving down traffic.
“‘This was supposed to be the year that newspapers started charging for online content,’ said Alan Mutter, a former newspaper editor who works as an industry consultant and blogger and submitted one of the 11 proposals. … ‘Based on what I’ve seen, I don’t get any sense that there is unanimity about charging or that they would know how to go about doing it.’”
Tags: micropayments, Newspapers, Online
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