[pclark]

I wonder how many of these users paid for news because they didn't realize they could go elsewhere?

My Dad rang me a few years ago and was like "hey, just bought iTunes, do they email me a download link?" and I was confused - what did he mean bought? It's free from Apple.

Turns out he google'd "iTunes download" and clicked the first result (an adword) and paid £25 for iTunes. I later actually met a guy that ran this scam, he said he made thousands each month. (Apple/Google has cracked down on this recently)

My point is, if you have thetimes.co.uk as your homepage, and you trust that for news - if one day you're asked to pay £1/month or whatever, would non internet savvy users just pay it? I expect quite a few would.

[corin_]

I think it's less likely. My grandmother wouldn't have heard of iTunes, or know what an "mp3" is, so if she learned about it she wouldn't realise it was just one of multiple options.

However she does know that there's more than one national paper in the UK.