More than half of newspaper publishers believe readers will pay to access online newspaper content, according to a survey conducted by industry consultants Greg Harmon and Greg Swanson for the American Press Institute.

51% of publishers say they believe they can successfully charge for content, while 49% either aren’t sure or believe paying for content will not work, reports Alan Mutter in his Reflections of a Newsosaur blog.

68% of publishers said they thought that, even if readers object to paying for content, they would have a difficult time finding that information in other places, while 52% said they thought it would be either very easy or somewhat easy for readers to find replacement content.

More data from the study:

58% of publishers said they are considering charging for content, but 49% said they have no timetable in mind for how that will play out. 12% said they plan to charge for content by the end of the year, 18% said they will do so in the first quarter of 2010, and 10% said they would begin charging by the beginning of next summer 10% currently charge for some portion of the web content

In terms of how charging for content might play out:

38% say they will limit full access to stories to monthly subscribers
28% say they will likely offer monthly subscriptions as well as micropayments for individual articles
15% expect to offer monthly subscriptions, micropayments, and “day passes”
19% expect news articles to remain free but that they will produce content specifically for the website which would be behind a pay wall
9% say they may adopt a system which would make visitors pay separately for each story they want to read.

The poll was completed by 118 newspapers of all sizes in all parts of the country.

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