What’s the next big market for newspaper paywalls and online subscriptions sales? South Africa, according to the Global Entertainment and Media Outlook report issued by PriceWaterhouse Coopers earlier this quarter.Digital newspaper circulation spending in South Africa is expected to grow by 75.2% by 2017, which translates into about 215 million rand ($21.7 million). Current digital sales are estimated to be about 48 million rand ($4.8 million), while print sales are estimated to be about 2.6 billion rand ($262 million).Meanwhile, a study by The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism found that consumer attitudes towards paying for digital content are shifting worldwide. And most interestingly, neither the US nor the UK are the biggest market for online subscriptions. Apparently, that’s Denmark, with 63% of respondents saying they’ve bought a digital subscription to access news in the past year (see chart below).
Moreover, consumers were most likely to pay for news content via their tablet device. This means that subscription news sites should be looking to optimize their paywalls for tablet usage, which requires accommodating finger swiping and minimizing keyboard usage.If you’re interested in more information about growing international markets for digital content sales, check out our 2013 Online Subscription Benchmark Report with a Special Focus on International Markets, as well as the Insider resources listed below.
