Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled • Hacker News Board

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#21

Post by kjkjadksj » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:38 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…

Historically you could read any newspaper for free. It would be left all over the place: at work, at cafes, on the bus seat. Short of that you could go to like a grocery store where the paper is kept in a rack not a box, read all you want, and put it back. Libraries had papers too.

Today publishers want an unprecedented level of restriction to solely the subscribers. News was never like this but they are trying to repaint our expectations on it for profit.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#22

Post by lakomen » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:38 PM UTC

troyvit wrote: post #13

So what's the answer then? Before the internet almost all journalism was "paywalled." You either bought a subscription or an individual copy of what the organization has to offer. Ad-supported journalism is a joke in a society that abuses advertising so thoroughly. Using an ad blocker is more than a convenience, it's a security measure. Arguably it's also better for the environment [1] [2]. One article [3] argues for…

In my city the newspaper puts their daily news on display in their windows for everyone to read for free.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#23

Post by kjkjadksj » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:39 PM UTC

yifanl wrote: post #18

60secs wrote: post #17

Too bad there's not a netflix/spotify for journalism. No single journalism source is worth a subscription for 99.9% of people. Aggregated, maybe.

I mean, the NYT/WaPo are basically aggregate sites for journalism?

They aren’t true aggregates since stories still go through their editors for filtering.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#24

Post by kjkjadksj » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:40 PM UTC

lakomen wrote: post #22

troyvit wrote: post #13

So what's the answer then? Before the internet almost all journalism was "paywalled." You either bought a subscription or an individual copy of what the organization has to offer. Ad-supported journalism is a joke in a society that abuses advertising so thoroughly. Using an ad blocker is more than a convenience, it's a security measure. Arguably it's also better for the environment [1] [2]. One article [3] argues for…

In my city the newspaper puts their daily news on display in their windows for everyone to read for free.

Free paper was everywhere I remember. Especially the coffee shop.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#25

Post by afruitpie » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:43 PM UTC

60secs wrote: post #17

Too bad there's not a netflix/spotify for journalism. No single journalism source is worth a subscription for 99.9% of people. Aggregated, maybe.

Apple News+ is trying to be that. I get it through my Apple One family plan.

The home page is shamefully Trump spam and tabloid garbage, but the magazine section isn’t terrible. I read The Atlantic and The New Yorker frequently on it.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#26

Post by kjreact » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:54 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…

> Requesting free journalism is like requesting free food. Both are essential, but few would expect food being distributed for free.

But unlike food, many people are willing to report on news freely without expectation of payment. For example, I get better local news coverage in my local city subreddit than I do in any professional publication.

Of course this type of citizen “journalism” is less rigorous, but nonetheless it is good enough which is why I believe charging for news has been a tough sell in the age of social media.

> 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.

I think the idea of Reddit gold comes close to a feasible micropayment system. At the moment it only profits Reddit, but there might be room for some profit sharing.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#27

Post by troyvit » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:57 PM UTC

lakomen wrote: post #22

troyvit wrote: post #13

So what's the answer then? Before the internet almost all journalism was "paywalled." You either bought a subscription or an individual copy of what the organization has to offer. Ad-supported journalism is a joke in a society that abuses advertising so thoroughly. Using an ad blocker is more than a convenience, it's a security measure. Arguably it's also better for the environment [1] [2]. One article [3] argues for…

In my city the newspaper puts their daily news on display in their windows for everyone to read for free.

You're lucky. My city's newspaper moved to another town to consolidate operations. They put a helluva a brewery (https://bootstrapbrewing.com/) in the old building though!

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#28

Post by troyvit » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:58 PM UTC

kjkjadksj wrote: post #24

lakomen wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In my city the newspaper puts their daily news on display in their windows for everyone to read for free.

Free paper was everywhere I remember. Especially the coffee shop.

The coffee shops most likely paid for those subscriptions.

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#29

Post by kjkjadksj » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 3:59 PM UTC

troyvit wrote: post #28

kjkjadksj wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free paper was everywhere I remember. Especially the coffee shop.

The coffee shops most likely paid for those subscriptions.

And then could do whatever they like with them unlike the digital equivalent

Re: Democracy Dies Behind Paywalls – Paywalled

#30

Post by BizarroLand » Tue, Apr 16, 2024, 4:10 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…

For me, the right concept would be that rather than pay every website I want to go to $10, $20 or even $50 / month for the at most 3 articles that I would read that I would have an add on in my browser that would pay a fraction of a penny to each website I visit.

Then it would be up to me. Do I want to put $10/month into browsing the internet without paywalls? Sure, fine, then I get an ad or two but I would have access.

Add a little more, fewer ads, better experience.

Then at the end of each month, the wallet extension empties and is split evenly among the websites I visited.

This would probably not work for high cost high bandwidth streaming sites like netflix, but for all of these piddly new sites that would bolster their income dramatically and allow them to stop fiddling with the stupid paywalls and trying to force every person who visits their site to pay them money to read their mostly poorly written and generally completely worthless text while being bombarded with ads and auto playing news videos about today's latest tragic political intrigue.