The days of universal access to free news content on the web appear to be numbered, with more than two-thirds of major British publishers saying that they either will, or are planning to, charge people for access to their online content.

Only 30 per cent of respondents who took part in the 2009 annual census by the Association of Online Publishers said they still had no plans to charge for content.

This represents a significant shift in the last two years, as when the same question was asked in 2007, 54 per cent of respondents said they had “no plans to charge for content”.

The survey now in its seventh year, was this time conducted during the full effects of the current economic downturn. It is a unique snapshot of the mood and views of the UK digital publishing industry.

AOP members represent the broad range of newspaper and magazine publishing, TV and radio broadcasting and pure online media in the UK, and the body encompasses producers of original, branded, premium and quality content.

This year’s census asked for AOP members’ views on the opportunities, threats and trends apparent in the digital landscape – and specifically about paid and free content; user-generated content (UGC); social media; content delivery mechanisms; mobile sites and mobile applications.

The biggest opportunities identified by AOP members in 2009 have been Mobile Web (85per cent), UGC (75per cent), high-speed broadband (75per cent), community/social networking (73per cent) and behavioural targeting (73per cent). Meanwhile, the biggest threats identified in the latest survey are the economy (70per cent), competitors (53per cent), the BBC (50per cent), Google (38per cent) and government and legal restrictions (35per cent).

Paid content is likely to be a mixture of areas around specialist services, respondents have said the micropayments model will be adopted by one in the three of those charging in the next 12 months.

Members who indicated that they “plan to charge” for content have highlighted special reports (26per cent), downloadable apps (26 per cent), archives (16per cent) and specific mobile content (16per cent) as the top areas.

Members indicated that mobile internet development was the biggest trend expected in the next 12 months, with 86 per cent of respondents saying they already provide, expect to provide mobile sites, or optimised mobile sites. While 83 per cent of AOP members said that the iPhone has transformed the opportunity for mobile internet.

In answer to the question, “what distribution channel will become more important in the next 12 months?” 69 per cent of respondents said Mobile, and 67 per cent of respondents said Mobile Apps – the two highest responses to this question.

Almost all publishers agreed they are keen to embrace social media (95 per cent). More than half now publish content through Twitter (57 per cent), just under half through Facebook (48 per cent) and YouTube (45 per cent). Traffic generated is the most likely measure of ROI through social media.

This year’s survey shows RSS feeds are still ubiquitous, with 93 per cent of members confirming they use this format, and while mobile and mobile apps have risen to the top of the survey this year, podcasts, vodcasts and IPTV are identified as being less prominent this year.

User-generated content is expected to account for a growing proportion of online content by 60 per cent of respondents, with 10 per cent believing the balance of content will become more professional, and 31 per cent saying it will stay the same. The majority of AOP members already provide a good mix of UGC methods on their sites, with the top three categories as comment areas; allowing users to link/tag content to UGC facilities provided by members on their sites; and reviews/recommendations.

Lee Baker, director of AOP, said: “We’ve all been talking about a tough year for industry and particularly for publishers, but again our members show their ability to adapt and take on new challenges in the form of exploiting new formats.

“A strong vote for Mobile and Mobile Apps is encouraging for the industry as a whole; and use of Twitter is a particularly interesting development in terms of use of new mechanisms to publish content.”