Media Subscription Fees

It is becoming more common for news to be hidden behind a paywall.  The standard consumer papers like the Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph charge between $4 - $10 per week to access special stories.  The Australian charges a little bit more, but then if you want to subscribe to the Australian Financial Review they want you to pay $59 per month.  That's $14.75 per week. 

I'm not saying news should be free, because let's face it, the days of getting free online content are well and truly behind us, however $14.75 for possibly one or two articles a week that interest you is a little excessive.  If the Australian Financial Review wants people to subscribe they need to lower their price, even if it was only $10 as an initial payment for the first four weeks and then $20 for the second and third months, then up to $40 a month.  That would be much fairer.

Or the major newspapers and news services could do what subscription TV does, and introduce a pay per view rate of say $1 per article, with billing done in 5-10 story increments.

It's annoying because by not offering alternatives the media organisations are alienating their audiences, some of whom are willing to pay for the news but not the fees they want to charge.  People used to get the news for free online so they need to ease us into paying rather than going for the high amount straight away.

What do you think?  Let me know on Twitter.