Google has announced Google Consumer Surveys, a new way for online news publishers to gate access to their premium content, by requiring readers to respond to microsurveys, first.

Online publishers often fund the creation of their content through ads; ask users to pay for content directly, by buying a subscription or purchasing a particular article.

Google will offer a new option: the ability to access some of content by responding to microsurveys. When a site has implemented this option, users will see a prompt that offers them a choice between answering a market research question or completing another action specified by the publisher (such as signing up for an account or purchasing access). Google says that all responses will be completely anonymous -- they aren't tied to users' identity or later used to target ads.

The surveys are only available in the U.S. for now. Advertisers and market researchers can target the whole population; segment by age, location and gender, or screen survey participants with an initial question. Targeting a U.S. audience costs 10 cents per answer and targeting more specified groups costs 50 cents.

Publishers get paid by the number of responses their site visitors provide and publishers have to maintain a 10% completion rate to continue serving the surveys.

How much revenue goes into Google's pockets is not known, as Gooogle negotiates with its partners on this. Publishers are paid based on the number of responses their site visitors provide.

Google says a number of publishers, such as the The Texas Tribune, the Star Tribune and Adweek have already started running these microsurveys on their sites.

"The idea behind Google Consumer Surveys is to create a model that benefits everyone. You get to keep enjoying your favorite online content, publishers have an additional option for making money from that content, and businesses have a new way of finding out what their customers want," Google said.

For more information, contact Google here.