Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Won’t Subscribe

tbray.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

171–180 of 362 posts

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#171

Post by apetresc »

grumple wrote: post #165
mnky9800n wrote: post #133

What's strange is it used to be you would pick up a newspaper at a stand for the day, pay a dollar or whatever, and then have quite a lot of articles to read for that day. But now, it is impossible, the only way is to lock-in. And that may be for the rest of your life if the complaints about the labirynth you may navigate to unsubscribe the nytimes is to be believed. If there was some sort of daily access pass that d…

These prices are just crazy compared to their old model. Do these papers really think they are providing as much value as Netflix (or more)? Even ignoring journalistic quality...

Uh, I'm almost certain they see themselves as providing more value than Netflix.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#172

Post by mongol »

I don't want to pay for sports, culture, opinions, entertainment, godsip, reviews etc coverage. I want to read the news. One week of newspaper issues contains something for everyone, from cartoons, to cookie recipes to car coverage etc. Not interested. I want the news, only the news. The rest I can get elsewhere.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#173

Post by sokoloff »

gpvos wrote: post #70
_wldu wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a good point. It's why I subscribe to some you tube channels but not others. I can find content I am interested in on dozens of channels, but I gravitate to those where I better relate to the channel owner's presentation or personality or problem-solving style.

The huge difference: Youtube subscriptions are free.

Free in money, not free in time. It’s a different kind of micro-payment system.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#174

Post by auggierose »

geuis wrote: post #170
auggierose wrote: post #167

In the end, a subscription is not something you need to "manage". People moaning over having to manage too many subscriptions? This stuff is automatically booked from your account, so I am not sure what people are complaining about. It's zero work for you. Now, you think that service is not worth $5 a month? That's a whole different matter, don't subscribe then.

This is a prime dictionary worthy example of not getting the point.

It's hard to get a point that doesn't exist in the first place. It's entitled folks moaning about having too much choice. So what, you would want it to be bundled again, so that you pay for stuff you don't need? Big facepalm.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#175

Post by podgib »

grumple wrote: post #165
mnky9800n wrote: post #133

What's strange is it used to be you would pick up a newspaper at a stand for the day, pay a dollar or whatever, and then have quite a lot of articles to read for that day. But now, it is impossible, the only way is to lock-in. And that may be for the rest of your life if the complaints about the labirynth you may navigate to unsubscribe the nytimes is to be believed. If there was some sort of daily access pass that d…

These prices are just crazy compared to their old model. Do these papers really think they are providing as much value as Netflix (or more)? Even ignoring journalistic quality...

I get a lot more value out of my Economist subscription than my Netflix one.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#176

Post by IgorPartola »

But the manager is right. There is no way to sell a single article 300 times a year to the same person. A lot easier to sell a subscription to 1/300th of people.

The other problem: if you just want to know what is happening, go to any news discussion site or board and click on the discussion. Comments will often contain long quotes and/or summaries of the articles. Plus major news networks all summarize articles: “CNN says Reuters says the NYT reported XYZ”. Selling a single article is a race to the bottom.

I can see going back to the original model though: for $5-10 you can buy an edition: today’s bundle of articles. Much better value for the buyer, easier than $1 micropayments. This of course requires some kind of clever balance between live updating breaking news and having a well defined set of articles to include in the edition.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#177

Post by Kosirich »

Similarly as the author suggest, I would also like to have a button to donate money to an article I really liked. Perhaps most of the times it would be 0.5, maybe 0.2 dollars. For my mental arithmetic, I use the "beer equivalents" as in "would I buy this man (author) a beer if I met him now in the street and if yes, how many". Perhaps someone can make a chrome add-on, with which you can donate an equivalent of a beer's worth of bitcoin that would be called "Give this man a beer".

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#178

Post by Kosirich »

What the author didn't mention explicitly is the obvious sludge techniques used in media subscription models. (https://www.behavioraleconomics.com/resources/mini-encyclope...) In case of The Economist, to which I'm subscribed, you have to call them...on a phone...like it's the 80s The worst offender of the type is scribed.com that has a fake "we're sorry to see you leave" page before you actually hit the final "yes I confirm that I want to unsubscribe" button. This resulted in at least 30 dollars extra that they got from me.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#179

Post by alexmingoia »

cgriswald wrote: post #140
alexmingoia wrote: post #100

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would go as far as to say the only thing that made newspapers relevant was distribution. The readers have a direct relationship with authors now. They follow them on Twitter, YouTube, blogs, etc. Authors of news are no longer full-time journalists, but everyone online. Everything is news and everyone is an author. Why pay the NYT to tell you what people will tell you on Twitter? Why pay a local paper to tell you ab…

A video of an event isn’t news. It’s data. News is the information that can be extracted from the video and other sources and put in context. The Twitter user doesn’t ask questions or if he does they are the wrong questions of the wrong people. And why should he bother asking any questions? He’s not getting paid and his viewers aren’t generally seeking news. That’s not to say Twitter couldn’t work this way, with Joe…

You can argue over what should be considered “news”, but updates and commentary on new events are now distributed online by anyone, outside of print periodicals.

For example, video game streamers I follow on YouTube reacting to new game trailers is news to me. It’s how I learn of upcoming games, among other things.

The NYT and similar periodicals are no longer the gatekeepers of distributing new information and commentary.

They can compete in the new information landscape, but they no longer define it.

Journalists no longer need the periodical, they can work for themselves and distribute through Twitter, newsletters, etc.

Re: Won’t Subscribe

#180

Post by selfhoster11 »

eitland wrote: post #142
jeremiahlee wrote: post #114

I think the Web Monetization API currently incubating as a proposed W3C standard would provide the experience you are desiring. Consumers establish a wallet provider and install a browser extension (for now, until the standard is formally adopted). When a Web Monetization HTML tag is encountered, the browser starts streaming micropayments every second while you are engaging with the content. Content creators can then…

> When a Web Monetization HTML tag is encountered, the browser starts streaming micropayments every second while you are engaging with the content. Will it empty my wallet as I attend an emergency? Will we see an uptick of sleazy tactics? At least for articles I ask: make it inexpensive for providers and simple for me. I pay them for articles, they show me articles, preferably easy to download as pdf. I'd probably pa…

I view mobile free-to-play games as the preview of some micropayment-oriented professions. They suck away your time if you don't pay up, and at that point I don't think it's even worth engaging in news reading.
Post reply on HN