Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled • Hacker News Board

Subscriptions are fine, I pay for several. But they don't fit every use case. There should be a way to pay for a single article. Some micropayment service(s) so you don't need an account with every web site you might want to read.

It has been tried numerous time without success. Not sure when the right time and the right concept will come.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#7

Post by probably_jesus » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 1:45 PM UTC

[dead]

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#8

Post by egberts1 » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 2:13 PM UTC

"Democracy dies in Darkness" -- paywalled Washington Post since 2017.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#9

Post by achow » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 2:21 PM UTC

usr1106 wrote: post #6

Requesting free journalism is like requesting free food. Both are essential, but few would expect food being distributed for free. Subscriptions are fine, I pay for several. But they don't fit every use case. There should be a way to pay for a single article. Some micropayment service(s) so you don't need an account with every web site you might want to read. It has been tried numerous time without success. Not sure…

I always wondered if Spotify could do it for music (which I think are much more zealously protected), why there is no similar service for news articles?

Is it because a news article is one time consumption, whereas music is not?

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#10

Post by jfengel » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 2:39 PM UTC

The paywalls aren't the problem. Information leaks around paywalls. The facts have always been available. You might not be able to get the primary source, but people are always bad about primary sources. People who want to believe disinformation have never let that stop them.

If anything, a paywall suggests that somebody has put some effort into gathering that news. People peddling disinformation want to pay you to take it.

I believe the real issue is that the disinformation is so popular. It's crafted so that some people want to hear it. It's usually not difficult to refute, but there's so much of it that it that even if you're skeptical it's hard to swat away 100% of it.

Putting a paywall between you and the actual news source doesn't help, but even if it were free, it's just too much work. And those who don't want to believe it won't.