Nikesh Arora, Vice President at Google UK, Believes Users Will Pay for Content

Nikesh Arora, the president Google for Europe, Middle East and Africa and vice president Google UK speaking at the World Editors Forum at the World Association of Newspapers 2008 conference said that he believes sites will eventually be able to charge for content and that many of the existing smaller Blogs will eventually disappear. Two things seem interesting from this statement:

1. People will pay for content online. I believe his is right about this. People will pay for quality content but the newspapers and content providers need to figure out how to package the information correctly. After all, people pay for water although it is free. People pay for HBO.
2. Smaller Blog news sites will disappear. This is an interesting one. I think to some degree that is already happening. I often come across Blogs that have been abandoned. It takes a lot of time to maintain a Blog and unless someone eventually gets paid for their efforts, the hobby isn't worth it. Who wants to Blog for peanuts when they can be out enjoying themselves? Once the dream and lustre of having a Blog wears off, the vast majority quit.

So, I guess I'm somewhat in agreement.