Why paying for content's still so difficult

For better or for worse, the days of the free internet are soon to be no more.

Sixty-six per cent of UK online publishers are preparing to introduce content charges in the near future in a bid to boost flagging advertising revenue, according to a report today from the Periodical Publishers Association Interactive (PPAi).

For FT.com readers that 'near future' could be as soon as this year. The publisher - a PPAi member - said today it would introduce content charges some time soon.

Visitors to the site might have to pay up to £100 a year for premium specialised content, such as analyses.

And they're not the only ones facing charges. Readers of The Times already pay £10 a year to exercise their grey matters on the famed crossword.

And they're in good company. Guardian unlimited readers pay for SMS news bulletins, Sun readers have recently been hit with subscription charges, whereas readers of the Wall Street Journal website have always had to pay for content.

Some websites such as Google and Yahoo are offering specialised information for a yearly or monthly subscription, others offer readers a format free from cumbersome banner ads.

The point, according to the PPAi, is not whether online publishers should charge for content - that argument's pretty much done and dusted - a more important issue is exactly how online publishers should make the charge.

But when it comes to online consumerism it seems users still prefer to use credit cards.

Fine if you're buying a £200 airline ticket or spending £20 on CDs but an online publisher charging readers 20p to scan through today's headlines or browse the football results will soon find themselves in the red after paying card transaction fees.

The method has to be inexpensive and simple to use - something many of the current alternatives to credit cards are not. The failure of earlier web payment methods such as Beenz proved that no matter how clever an idea, critical customer mass is essential to make any revenue.

Micropayments haven't gathered the necessary customer momentum yet - they're either too daunting for users or too complicated for merchants.

It's still early days - which means in terms of payment providers the chaff has yet to be sorted from the wheat. And this worries PPAi members.

They pinpointed seven or eight micropayment providers in the UK.

Styles range from ISPs billing content charges to a user's phone bill, to 0800-style numbers which users call to buy credit for use with their own unique pin number.

But many of these providers are still in the early stages of talks with content partners. And if there's no content there are no customers.

Predictions are that just one or two major micropayment providers will survive.

But before online publishers get caught up in the payment issue, they'd do well to remember that users are just getting used to the idea forking out for internet content. Paying via this new method is just too much for some consumers to handle at the moment.

For the time being at least content providers have some breathing space as they try to convince consumers their products are worth paying for. However, before too long they're going to have to commit to one payment method or another.