An Empirical Study of Factors that Influence the Willingness to Pay for Online News

Abstract

Drawing on the theory of the economics of information, this study sheds light on the factors that influence willingness to pay for online news, using a telephone survey of 570 US (from the Pew Research Center) adults selected at random. Results of the logistic regression analysis revealed relationships between paying intent and predictor variables such as demographics (age and income), purchase of other digital products (online movies or TV content, software programs, eBooks and applications) and media use (Twitter). However, independent variables such as gender (demographics), video games and music files (purchase of other digital products) were not statistically significant. Future research on the economics of news may take into account these findings focused on studying paying intent.