Number of websites charging for content falls - AOP

Posted on 6 Apr 2006 at 15:34

The Association of Online Publishers has revealed that the number of websites that charge for content has dropped, the first time the figure has fallen in the four years since the AOP began tracking the market.

The fall is substantial, from 63 per cent of member sites a year ago to 37 per cent. Rising advertising revenues are behind the fall. Since advertising revenues depend to a large extent on the number of visitors a site gets, deterring visitors by charging makes little sense.

This is reflected in the AOP finding that 43 per cent of its members have no intention to charge for content; two years ago the figure was just 18 per cent.

'While there remains a strong view from consumers that web content must be "free", the healthy online ad market has probably convinced most publishers that there's little point in sacrificing valuable ad inventory in trying to convert consumers to paying,' said Bill Murray, AOP chairman and managing director of group business information strategy for Haymarket Publishing. 'However, I suspect that within the B2B [business-to-business] market and with some of the more interavailable, high-value consumer content enabled by broadband, we will see long term growth in the number publishers charging for the best content.'

Dennis Interactive is a member of the AOP.

Author: Simon Aughton

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