LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--UK consumers want their online news to be free at the point of consumption, and for journalists to be rewarded for the great content they create.
A new survey for The News Hub, conducted by polling expert Toluna, found near-unanimous support for online news to be free, with 96% agreeing there should be no charges to access news websites. Four people in five (80%) also agreed that journalists should be paid for great content they produce.
Despite journalists contending with newspaper closures and cutbacks, consumers of news are optimistic about the impact of technology and the internet on the news industry. Nearly three-quarters (73%) of respondents agreed the unprecedented number of ways to access, consume and create news heralded a ‘golden age’ for journalism and journalists.
William Stolerman, founder of The News Hub – an open journalism platform that’s free to access and pays contributors for great content – said: “Around the world traditional news organisations are grappling with the challenge of making online news profitable. Some publishers have put up paywalls with varying degrees of success; others hope online advertising will meet the prohibitive cost of running news teams.
“Our plan for journalism is built around free content and journalists being paid. We’re doing that through an open journalism model: our content is produced by a rapidly growing community of journalists – we now have over 850 contributors in 55 countries. They publish what they want, whenever they like, and our readers decide which contributors should be rewarded.
“We firmly believe this is an exciting time for the news industry.”
The survey was conducted for The News Hub by Toluna using its innovative QuickSurveys platform. A representative sample of 1,005 UK adults aged 18+ took part in the online survey from August 21 to August 23, 2015.
About The News Hub
The News Hub is an open journalism platform. It’s free to access and pays top contributors for good content. All the content is produced by a rapidly growing, global community of contributors. They publish what they want, whenever they like. The News Hub's readers decide which contributors should be rewarded. Its platform is also open for brands and their agencies to post content and reach target audiences; native advertising is a key plank of its monetisation strategy.
