The editor of the Financial Times Lionel Barber, in a speech last night, predicted that almost all news outlets will be charging for content within the next year.
Barber said building online platforms that could charge readers on an article-by-article or subscription basis was one of the key challenges facing news organisations.
“How these online payment models work and how much revenue they can generate is still up in the air,” Barber said in a speech at at a Media Standards Trust event at the British Academy last night.
“But I confidently predict that within the next 12 months, almost all news organisations will be charging for content.”
— Financial Times editor says most news websites will charge within a year Financial Times 16 Jul 2009
He recognizes, as we do, that there is a need for new business models for news publishing. His perspective is for existing outlets. It is likely that newspapers will first consider charging for content like subscriptions, premium pricing, and micropayment because they are revenue models and do not require the structural changes that non-profit or foundation funding require.