Boost for Rupert Murdoch's plans to charge for online access? British and Americans most reluctant to pay Rupert Murdoch's plans to impose fees for newspaper websites received a morale boost from research suggesting that as many as 48% of British and American consumers would be willing to pay a few pounds a month for online news.A study by the Boston Consulting Group found a higher than expected level of willingness to stump up for journalism on the web. Britain and the US ranked lowest among nine countries surveyed, with as many as 66% of Finns, 63% of Germans and 62% of Italians polled declaring themselves open to paying for access to news websites.At present, only 12% of British readers would pay anything for online news.