Anyone who’s read “The Innovator’s Dilemma” will see two perspectives in the following passage:

A New Media Age survey found this month that 77 per cent of UK regular online readers were not prepared to pay for access to news websites. A separate PwC report with the World Association of Newspapers found that consumers were more willing to pay for financial or sports coverage, but would choose free content over subscription sites “when the quality was comparable or sufficient for their purpose”. [Emphasis added.]

Perspective 1: Established media organizations are in a bad spot because the audience will always gravitate toward free content that meets the “good enough” standard.

Perspective 2 (the interesting one): New content businesses can use “good enough” free content to grab audience share from established media entities. And since new firms are unencumbered by massive overhead, they can (potentially) achieve sustainability with smaller staffs supported by lower ad rates and ancillary, built-in revenue streams (events, conferences, and the like).