Interest and willingness to pay for investigative reporting : a solution for the crisis of journalism?

Abstract

The Internet has stimulated a cross-shift in the business model across the media sector. Traditional funding sources have been reduced by the voracious pulse for free access and non-professional actors have swarmed over to compete with traditional channels of information. This paper attempts to analyze willingness-to-pay for investigative journalism contents from a general audience’s point of view, in order to find consumption patterns that could orientate professionals in this crisis. To achieve such an aim, a survey was conducted to examine the paying habits of Madrid’s population using a multistage technique, which was designed following the indexes provided by the Municipal Register of the town. The results, based on three payment channels –micro-payment, donation and annual subscription–and three distribution channels –corporate media, non-corporate media and freelance journalists–confirm the interest of the audience for investigative reporting findings but also their unwillingness to pay for its scoops or exposés.