Is the Arab audience willing to pay for online news? Predictors of their paying intent

Elsayed Bekhit Darwish, Zayed University

Document Type

Article

Source of Publication

Journal of Arab & Muslim Media Research

Publication Date

4-1-2023

Abstract

Recently several newspapers considered paid content strategies to substitute advertising and government subsidy. This study examines to what extent Arab audiences are willing to support these strategies, and what factors influence their willingness to pay (WTP) for online news, using a survey of 530 adults. The study found most of the public is not willing to pay for online newspapers, but are willing to pay for entertainment services. Most of them are not subscribing to printed or online newspapers. They do not have a real intent to help the newspapers in their digital transformation. Most of the public did not experience the paywall yet. Age and income influence the likelihood of paying for online news and to a lesser extent, gender and education. Age and income were predictors for WTP for entertainment services. Age and education were predictors for using online sources.

ISSN

1751-942X

Publisher

Intellect

Volume

16

Issue

1

First Page

35

Last Page

53

Disciplines

Communication

Keywords

Online news, paid content strategies, Arab audiences

Indexed in Scopus

no

Open Access

no

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