A readership survey conducted by malaysiakini last month revealed a surprising fact - the website is not only attracting young professionals who are Internet-savvy but also a sizeable older generation.

Out of the 1,250 respondents of the survey, 40 percent were from the above-40 age bracket, while the core readers comprised the 26-40 age group, which constituted about 47 percent.

About 12 percent were from the 18-25 age group and 0.8 percent, below 18.

"We're introducing a new generation to the Internet," malaysiakini editor-in-chief Steven Gan quipped.

He added that a number of these middle-aged readers had told malaysiakini that they had no choice but to learn about the Internet in order to access the daily which is only available online.

"The survey confirms what we have always suspected - that malaysiakini has drawn many readers from professionals who are in senior management levels," said Gan.

"They represent a very important group since many of them are decision-makers in their respective fields."

Top three

The survey, which was conducted for a month from Sept 24, collated comprehensive data on the readers, most of them fervent supporters, of malaysiakini since its inception two years ago.

Malaysiakini today attracts an average daily readership of 120,000 and has created a niche in reporting political news.

Almost 90 percent of the survey respondents rated malaysiakini as one of their top three websites, with the majority picking news (34 percent) and columns (26 percent) as their favourite sections.

This was followed by 25 percent who named the entire content of malaysiakini as their favourite, while 10 percent picked the letters forum and another five percent, the readers' polls.

In terms of sex, readers who responded were overwhelmingly male (88 percent).

Geographical-wise, almost 82 percent accesses the website from within Malaysia, the rest from overseas.

Pay for news

The survey had also asked for readers' views on malaysiakini 's plan to convert to a subscription-based website.

About 70 percent of the respondents agreed in principle for a fee-based news site, while 30 percent want malaysiakini to continue providing its contents for free.

"This shows that most of our readers are ready to pay to read malaysiakini ," said malaysiakini chief executive officer Premesh Chandran.

Readers were willing to pay for more news (18.1 percent) and investigative journalism (18.4 percent), he revealed.

"Another 10 percent said they wanted more features and columns in the site."

Chandran said based on the feedback, malaysiakini will proceed with its plans to convert to a subscription-based setup from next year.

Among those in the survey who agreed to the subscription plan, 24.8 percent said everybody must be charged the same rate, while 12.9 percent said there should be different rates for local and foreign users.

About 22 percent of the participants believed that a fee should only be imposed with regard to certain contents. Another seven percent wanted paying readers to have exclusive access to the site first, while non-paying readers can access it the next day.

A small number (4.3 percent) however feel that those logging from overseas should be asked to pay so that the site can be kept free for local users.

The participants were also asked on how much they would pay for an advertisement-free site. Almost 67 percent would fork out RM10 a month, while 22 percent were willing to pay RM20.

About nine percent did not mind paying RM30 a month and another 3.3 percent had no problems with RM40 a month.

Frequency

A total of 44.5 percent have been visiting malaysiakini since its inception while another 38.5 percent only started logging on last year.

About nine percent have been regulars in the past six months; 7.5 percent in the past three months.

Almost 60 percent of those surveyed visit malaysiakini once a day while 23 percent read the site twice or thrice a day. About 17 percent only visit the site once in a while.