{"id":95504,"date":"2011-04-05T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-04-05T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/2011\/04\/05\/paying-up-online-an-interview-with-jim-jansen\/"},"modified":"2024-04-14T04:17:41","modified_gmt":"2024-04-14T09:17:41","slug":"paying-up-online-an-interview-with-jim-jansen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alpha.pewresearch.org\/pewresearch-org\/internet\/2011\/04\/05\/paying-up-online-an-interview-with-jim-jansen\/","title":{"rendered":"Paying Up Online: An interview with Jim Jansen"},"content":{"rendered":"

Subscription services favored over single file sales; no significant difference in behavior of men and women; a typical monthly \u201cspend\u201d of $10. Those are among the findings of a recent survey<\/a> of 1000 American internet users by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. (You can <\/strong>read or download\u00a0the full report here<\/strong><\/a>.) <\/strong><\/p>\n\n

Perhaps most surprising \u2013 given that so much of online content is \u201cfree\u201d or used without permission \u2013 is that two of three Americans have paid for music, books and games, among other digital media.<\/p>\n\n

\u201cOur findings were that 18% of Internet users have paid for a newspaper article, journal article, or online report,\u201d Pew senior fellow\u00a0Jim Jansen<\/a> told Chris Kenneally at the \u201cBuying & Selling EContent<\/a>\u201d conference presented by Information Today.\u00a0 \u201cThe ability to buy digital content online is critically important to a lot of people, a lot of businesses, a lot of artists and photographers.\u201d<\/p>\n\n

According to Jansen, the most common digital media products purchased are music and software.\u00a0 The average spend was about $47 in a given month, although the typical user spent $10 to $15. In addition to his work for Pew, Jansen teaches at Penn State\u2019s College of Information Sciences & Technology<\/a> and is recognized as expert in Web searching, sponsored search, and personalization for information searching.<\/p>\n\n

You can <\/strong> listen to the interview here (mp3)<\/strong> <\/a> , or <\/strong> read the transcript below (pdf<\/a>)<\/strong> .<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

\n

\"Beyond<\/figure>\n<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 People actually do pay for online content, or at least that\u2019s the finding and the breaking news behind a survey from the Pew Internet and American Life Project.\u00a0 Joining me here at a special conference on buying and selling e-content in Scottsdale, Arizona, is Jim Jansen.\u00a0 He\u2019s a senior fellow for the Pew Internet and American Life Project as well as an associate professor at Penn State in the College of Information Sciences and Technology, and Jim, welcome to Beyond the Book<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Chris, thanks for having me.\u00a0 Pleasure to be here.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 It\u2019s a pleasure to have a chance to talk to you about something that is almost an oxymoron.\u00a0 That\u2019s paid content.\u00a0 We don\u2019t think about content these days as being paid for, but as we sit here today, this is the week that the New York Times<\/i> has opened up its new subscription model, or pay wall model, depending on how you look at it, and paid content is really the most important issue for publishers today.\u00a0 So tell us about your survey for the Pew project and what it was you were looking for and what it was you found.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Well, Chris, as you said, the ability to buy digital content online is critically important to a lot of people, a lot of businesses, a lot of artists, photographers, a whole gamut of people.\u00a0 So we were very interested in that aspect of this technology and whether consumers were willing to put out their money to buy this stuff.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 So, what we did, rather than directly asking whether people purchased online content, we broke it down into 16 different separate categories and asked people, in a given month, did you purchase X?\u00a0 In a given month, did you purchase Y?\u00a0 And those X and Y could be newspaper articles, journal articles, music, software, anything that\u2019s digital, anything that\u2019s not an atom.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 And that sounds like a bit like the Nielsen houses, right?\u00a0 They sort of take a diary and follow what it is they watch and you draw some conclusions.\u00a0 So tell us about the kinds of things people are paying for and the kinds of prices that they\u2019re paying.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Well, one thing that really \u2013 the overall finding was that 65% of Internet users have paid for digital content in a given month.\u00a0 And I personally found that a little surprising because if you had asked me, I would say I don\u2019t do it, but when I took the survey and went through these 16 different categories, I found out, oh.\u00a0 It was a good memory jog, and I do.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Certainly, the most common products purchased are music and software.\u00a0 However, games and information from articles and stuff are also purchased quite frequently.\u00a0 The average spend was about $47 in a given month, although the typical user spent $10 to $15.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 So even if they were at the high end of things, if you\u2019re spending for content, you\u2019re spending about a dollar a day.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Yes, that\u2019s a good way of looking at it, exactly.\u00a0 About a dollar a day, give or take.\u00a0 And if you kind of go through it, you can get to $10 pretty fast in a given month.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 And does this break down in any interesting way by demographics?\u00a0 Is it a question of age?\u00a0 Do the young not pay so much and the older pay more?\u00a0 Men?\u00a0 Women?\u00a0 Is there any conclusions you can draw about the kind of people who are buying content?<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 In our report, which is on the Pew Internet website, we did an extensive demographic analysis.\u00a0 Some of the interesting trends we found, no difference between men and females, except in the area of software.\u00a0 Men, much more highly consumers in that regard.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 In terms of age group, it was the 30 to 49 and we have found in many of our surveys that those have been the drivers in the use of the Internet, and probably a variety of reasons, one of those being income.\u00a0 They have the income and the time to do it.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was no racial breakdown or in terms of racial demographics.\u00a0 All blacks, whites and Hispanics seem to do it at the same rate.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 There was a correlation, of course, with income.\u00a0 The more you make, the more willing you are to spend money on this stuff.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 And what about what it is they buy? \u00a0I\u2019m a newspaper junkie.\u00a0 I\u2019m an old newspaper man, so news is what\u2019s really important to me.\u00a0 Music, film, not so much these days.\u00a0 But you said that for your findings, it was a lot on the entertainment side of things.\u00a0 Are people buying real content, what I call real content, news, hard information?<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Our findings were that 18% of Internet users have paid for a newspaper article, journal article, online report.\u00a0 And then an additional 7% or so have paid for things like podcasts and things like that that we would classify in the classic informational, educational arena.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 Well, so much information is free.\u00a0 You mentioned podcasts, and the podcast for Beyond the Book<\/i> of course is free, but Copyright Clearance Center is a nonprofit and we do it as a kind of service.\u00a0 But there\u2019s a conditioning that\u2019s been going on for so many years now online, on the Internet and elsewhere, to expect things for free.\u00a0 As you say, you were surprised that people are paying.\u00a0 Any indication as to whether we are moving more towards pay, away from free, or is this pretty much the way it\u2019s been for a while now?<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Well, there is always a desire for free, whether it\u2019s the technology or not, which I think it made libraries, for example, very popular for many, many people for many, many years.\u00a0 I think one thing that you\u2019re seeing is it\u2019s not just technology, but it\u2019s business models.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I\u2019ll use the iTunes and Netflix example.\u00a0 It is almost easier for me to pay than it is to try and get it for free.\u00a0 And I think things like with the New York Times<\/i> and the Washington Post<\/i> models and the journal models that are developing on apps, I think that will be the measure of success or failure.\u00a0 Do they have a business model and a delivery platform that really makes it so darned easy and inexpensive to get the information?<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 It\u2019s convenient and it\u2019s timely.\u00a0 If I want it right now, I can get it right now.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 I think that timeliness aspect, and that timeliness spills over from the Internet also to the real world with the successes of Amazon with the real-time ordering.\u00a0 They will get it shipped out today.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 Well, let\u2019s step back and you can tell us about the Pew Internet and American Life Project.\u00a0 Internet and American Life.\u00a0 It\u2019s an interesting notion that our American life today is so much shaped by the Internet.\u00a0 And the Internet, of course, is a catchall not only for what happens online with your laptop, but today, we\u2019re accessing the Internet via our phones and all kinds of mobile devices, so that, really, the Internet is with us wherever we go.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Absolutely.\u00a0 The Internet and American Life Project is one of the seven projects from Pew Internet Research, and that combination of the effect of the Internet and technology on our everyday life is revolutionary.\u00a0 We see the broadband revolution going on that has really allowed us to access the Internet for information and entertainment, the wireless where we\u2019re always on, we\u2019re always connected, and also the social networking revolution is going on where we can really tie this access to people and friends and business associates in our real life.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 When you presented your report yesterday here at this conference for the buying and selling of e-content, you broke down some of those numbers about broadband access.\u00a0 If I recall correctly, it\u2019s almost correlated to the finding about paid content.\u00a0 So two out of three Americans have actually paid for content and about two out of three Americans have broadband access now.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Yes, Chris, there\u2019s this really interesting correlation.\u00a0 The 65% of people have purchased digital content on line, 66% have broadband access in the home, 65% have purchased real products, tangible products, online, 65% have purchased tangible services online.\u00a0 I think it\u2019s an amazing correlation.\u00a0 I think there\u2019s something there that\u2019s feeding into each other.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 And so, it\u2019s interesting to me.\u00a0 That\u2019s about access and I wonder whether you or any of your colleagues are looking at Internet access as it\u2019s shaping up around arguments about net neutrality and just the way that perhaps some of the providers themselves are moving forward with their own business models.\u00a0 Have you looked at that at all?\u00a0 Any thoughts about how access is going to be the real critical point, not so much content?<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Well, certainly access is part of the equation.\u00a0 I think if you look at the research we\u2019ve done and the surveys we\u2019ve done on broadband access, the correlation and the really revolutionary access that that has given people to leverage content on the Internet.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 I think another thing that we\u2019re investigating now is the aspect of cellphones, specifically smartphones.\u00a0 It could be another type of amazing access that allows people to seamlessly get at this content.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 Right.\u00a0 Now, to the issue of paying, you mentioned $10 average, as high as $47, $50 a month for some people.\u00a0 As I mentioned, we are this week watching the unfolding of the New York Times<\/i>\u2019 pay wall subscription model.\u00a0 There\u2019s more talk about that in the industry, certainly at some of the programs today here at this conference, brought to us by Information Today<\/i>, a look at how we can possibly, as publishers or authors, creators, be paid for what we create.\u00a0 But there\u2019s got to be some tension there.\u00a0 It\u2019s not just the free, but also, peoples\u2019 wallets aren\u2019t infinitely large.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Certainly the money is always a restrictor, just as it is in all factors of our lives, paying for the work and the products and the material. \u00a0But I think one thing that these surveys indicate is kind of these price points that are going on of what the typical user is willing to pay for, what your high-end user is willing to pay for.\u00a0 And so I think this kind of data can provide some great insights to businesses as they set up what is a good price point for what I\u2019m offering.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 Any insights on professional behavior?\u00a0 You focused on consumer behavior in all of this, but do you think it\u2019s probably about the same in the professional world?<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 We didn\u2019t specifically look at that, so I\u2019m just kind of going anecdotally here from my own behavior, behavior of colleagues, that if there are materials that are used in a professional nature that maybe get picked up by the business or if I\u2019m an independent contractor, get picked up as a business expense, there seems to be a more willingness to engage in subscription services for that type of content.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 If you were advising a publisher who was thinking about a subscription model, any direction you would point them in?\u00a0 Any suggestions you\u2019d make?\u00a0 Any thoughts to offer as both a senior fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project and a professor in information sciences?\u00a0 People are asking a lot of questions and you\u2019d be the sort of person who might have an answer or two.\u00a0 What would you tell them?<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Well, certainly I would start with the market research.\u00a0 Let\u2019s look at the companies that have been successful at it, that have great or at least very workable business models for online content.\u00a0 Netflix has certainly been successful.\u00a0 It appears Amazon is being very successful in the e-book area, iTunes in the music, TV shows, video area.<\/p>\n\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 And I think what has really made each of those companies successful is not only a technology, but an understanding of their customer base and a delivery mechanism that, again, makes it easier to pay than to spend the time trying to find a song rather than paying 99 cents.\u00a0 It\u2019s cheaper just to pay.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 That doesn\u2019t sound like that makes sense.\u00a0 It\u2019s cheaper just to pay.\u00a0 (laughter) <\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Well, when you look at the time that sometimes you have to invest if you want to find a rip-off copy of a song and go to a site that may drop some virus on your computer, certainly 99 cents is cheaper than a Coke.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 I\u2019m with you, Jim.\u00a0 It\u2019s sort of like people who drive all over town looking for gas that\u2019s two cents less than the one just down the street.\u00a0 I don\u2019t understand it myself.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 It\u2019s a cost-benefit analysis.\u00a0 What benefit am I getting for the cost I have to invest?\u00a0 And I think the principle of least effort, which is a common principle in academia, people will get a good solution with the minimal amount of effort, and so if you design a delivery system that realizes that and leverages it for people, I think there\u2019s good models to be made here.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 Well, we\u2019ve been chatting with Jim Jansen, a senior fellow at the Pew Internet and American Life Project as well as associate professor at Penn State\u2019s College of Information Sciences and Technology, talking about a survey released in December 2010 from the Pew project looking at how people pay for content, what they pay and what they buy.\u00a0 Jim Jansen, thanks so much for joining me on Beyond the Book<\/i>.<\/p>\n\n

JANSEN:\u00a0 Chris, thank you so much for having me.<\/p>\n\n

KENNEALLY:\u00a0 For all of us at Copyright Clearance Center, this is Chris Kenneally wishing you a great day.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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