Chairman and publisher of The New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr, stressed the need to take risks and not be afraid of failure in the quest to find a business model that can adequately support high quality journalism. He was speaking at the WAN-IFRA 9th International Newsroom Summit in London.

The New York Times is due to introduce a 'metered' paywall in early 2011. Readers will be allowed to access a certain number of articles free each month, then will be asked to pay. "This has the benefit of allowing our millions of readers who come to us through search engine to still find our content," Sulzberger specified, while those who use the site heavily will be charged.

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Zero percent of people said they would pay to use Twitter, according to a study by the Center for the Digital Future at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism.

Forty-nine percent of Internet users surveyed said they have used free online micro-blogging services such as Twitter, but when asked if they would pay to use Twitter, not one person said they would, according to the study, released Friday.

"Such an extreme finding that produced a zero response underscores the difficulty of getting Internet users to pay for anything that they already receive for free," stated Jeffrey I. Cole, director of the center at USC. "Twitter has no plans to charge its users, but this result illustrates, beyond any doubt, the tremendous problem of transforming free users into paying users ... Online providers face major challenges to get customers to pay for services they now receive for free."

The study also found that Internet users don't really care for online ads, either.

Seventy percent said online advertising is "annoying," and 50 percent of the users never click on Web ads. However, ads are the lesser of two evils, with 55 percent saying they would rather see online ads than pay for content.

The Times Online and Sunday Times last week began charging for online content, and publishers around the world are eager to see if the UK newspapers' efforts are successful.

However, according to a new Forrester study, instead of asking how much they can make from the content, companies, should be focusing on "how that content can help create new revenue streams," analyst Nick Thomas wrote in his Forrester blog.

Image: Francesco Rachello

"The value in a media business lies in its dialogue with consumerism," Thomas wrote. "If a paywall removes 90% of your audience (as Sunday Times editor John Witherow has suggested -- and even that may be an underestimate), the challenge becomes even harder. Focusing on the sale of content is missing a trick: Media companies are not actually in the content business; they are in the audience business," he added.

The percentage of readers who will switch to the paywall model is not yet clear, but plenty of evidence shows that consumers spend money online on products and services. For example, online news fans tend to buy books, tickets, travel, or clothing online more than average online users.

Three U.S. newspapers are set to introduce paywalls to their websites later this week, reports journalism.co.uk. The newspapers, The Tallahassee Democrat in Florida, the Spectrum in Utah, and Greenville News in South Carolina, will introduce a range of subscription packages on July 1. Gannett owns all three of the newspapers and the paywalls are reportedly part of the company's subscription trials.

On the Greenville News site, publisher Steven R. Brandt and executive editor John S. Pittman explain "content, regardless of the platform, was never 'free.' This new model will require Web users to pay for online content, either by selecting one of the subscription offers above, or purchasing a day pass to the GreenvilleOnline.com website. The difference is that now everyone will be paying for it, not just those who bought the print edition."

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