Pay for Online News

People have paid for print newspapers for ages and they don't seem to mind. So what is so different about online news? This paper develops an individual-level choice model for analyzing the probability of an individual choosing one of these charging service for online news: video on demand, news in depth, and news in print whereas no-charge is a status-quo. Among the charging service, customization, specialization, updateness, variety, and archive are measuring service attributes. Based on data collected from 9,624 approved members of a top news site on Taiwan, the results indicate that the 5 service attributes are all shown to have statistically significant impact on the probability of choosing a charging service while the variety attribute has a relatively higher impact as a whole. Results reveal that the preferences of respondents for charging services increase if the service design “hits” their real preferences, despite their initial negative attitude toward charging service. Accordingly, customization, updateness, and variety are identified as the core components of online news design. Keyword: Electronic Commerce, Online News, Discrete Choice Analysis; Random Utility