News Subscription Motivation: Why Audiences Pay for News

In the face of accelerated losses in advertising revenue, news organizations are increasingly interested in strategies to increase subscription sales. Previous studies have found several predictors of paywall success in obtaining and maintaining subscriptions, willingness to pay, and paying for news. But these factors have not been linked together into one clear conceptual framework. This monograph introduces a new construct, News Subscription Motivation, that theoretically links different predictors of paying for news. Mixed-method research was employed to conceptualize and operationalize this new construct. Results of in-depth interviews and online surveys revealed six underlying motivations that drive people to pay for news: support for journalism, journalism quality, triggering by the paywall, community attachment, affordability, and content utility. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis to validate the News Subscription Motivation Scale and used multiple regressions to demonstrate statistically significant relationships between subscription motivations and both the number of news subscriptions people report paying for and the types of subscriptions people buy (local vs. national). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications of studying news subscription motivation.