Websites no substitute for newspapers, inquiry told

NEWS WEBSITES are no substitute for newspapers, a media analyst has told an inquiry into press ethics.

Claire Enders told the Leveson Inquiry that “digital models” would not fill the role of “traditional enterprises”.

Readers would pay to “consume” a newspaper but would not pay for websites because they were not “significantly engaged”, she said.

Ms Enders, who runs research firm Enders Analysis, told inquiry chairman Lord Justice Leveson that even the most popular news websites are comparatively small enterprises.

She said the public still have to rely on print journalists to do “very complex work”.

She said: “I think we can say with certainty that digital models will not fill the role of traditional enterprises. We can say it with certainly because we have the evidence.

“The consumer of the newspaper is prepared to pay £1-plus to consume a product that that person will read for 40 minutes a day. That is the reality.

“That product is really quite different from a website which is grazed, you know, to the tune of... I think the average news site user is 15 minutes a month.

“That’s half a minute a day. It’s not a significant engagement. People will not pay for something with which they’re not significantly engaged.”