Not willing to pay for it?
 
Maybe not yet, but one day soon you’ll be pulling that credit card out quicker than you can say “w” three times. At least, that’s the dream of online “content” providers who now are struggling with the challenges of turning Internet information — especially news — into profits.
 
Fully 70 percent of online adults “cannot understand why anyone would pay for content online,” reports Jupiter Media Metrix, an Internet technology analysis and measurement company, from its March survey.
 
“While there is money to be made in the online content business, Jupiter’s latest survey and market forecast numbers indicate that the mass market still largely shuns anything that smells like a subscription online,” said David Card, Jupiter vice president. Companies attempting to move content via the Internet will have to package that with other subscription services, use some form of exclusivity and add interactive features, or all three, while they wait for users to all get broadband and for consumers’ expectations to change, he said.
 
The Jupiter survey shows that 42 percent of online adults expect that, over time, they will have to pay for Internet content.  Those results are three points worse than revealed by a similar survey two years ago. The bright side, Jupiter says, is that “major media properties are in a better position than they were four or five years ago because they no longer face well-financed startups giving away quality programming in an effort to lure new users.”
 
Jupiter’s prediction is that by 2006 providers of financial and business news content will be taking in about $350 million, lowest among the general content categories and significantly behind audio/video entertainment ($600 million), and adult entertainment ($400 million).
 
CNN obviously read the survey results. This week, the network began phasing out free video clips on its news, sports and financial sites, according to USA Today. If you want those clips, you’ll have to subscribe at a rate of $4.95 per month or $39.95 per year, or sign up for RealNetworks’ SuperPass at $9.95 per month, which also gives you ABC News, Fox Sports and NASCAR, along with pro baseball and basketball.
 
CNN executives were unavailable for comment, but issued a news release saying, “High-quality digital products, like streaming video, are costly, and the subscription services allow us to maintain the standard our users expect.”
 
ABC News also just ended its free video, said USA Today, but CBS and MSNBC, which is the Net’s top news site, are taking the contrarian view. ‘It’s an obvious competitive advantage for us,” said Merrill Brown, MSNBC editor in chief. “We’re committed to providing video on the Web for free.”