Studies show that the current generation of young people spend less time consuming news than previous generations. In addition, they appear to consume news mainly 'for free' via digital and social media. The central research question in this project is: 'Under what circumstances and conditions are young people prepared to pay for the use of the services of news companies?
The objectives are the following:
- We identify through which channels and in which way young people consume news today.
- We investigate how Flemish youngsters perceive the current news supply and examine whether there is a 'mismatch' between the current news supply and their idea of good news supply.
- We analyze how young people assess the value of paid news services.
- We identify the factors that predict to what extent young people are willing to pay for news. We investigate which 'bundles' news companies may be able to offer to reach these young people as paying audiences.
We search for an answer through a combination of research methods:
- We conduct in-depth interviews with a heterogeneous group of 50 young people.
- We organize a large-scale survey among Flemish youngsters and test a model in which we examine the influence of the factors identified in the literature and in-depth interviews on the willingness to pay in the future.
- In addition, we trace the news consumption route of young people.
By mapping out the considerations young people make in their decision whether or not to consume (paying) news, we want to inspire traditional news media in designing their future revenue models. In addition to scientific articles, we are developing an educational package as part of media literacy training.