A study by Boston Consulting Group indicates people are increasingly willing to pay for local and national news delivered to their mobile devices.
On average, according to the study, the price would have to top out at about $3 a month, which admittedly isn’t much. But it offers two strong points of optimism:
People are willing to pay SOMETHING for what was previously assumed to be of no commercial value.
$3 a month, for a product that no longer has the production or distribution cost of a printed product, is worth far more in the way of earnings than it would be for a traditional media product.
No, this isn’t proof that consumers will pay the full cost of journalism. But does demonstrate that they are aware of the pressure that traditional media models are under as advertising revenue continues to erode; and that they are warming up to being part of the solution.