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Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

nytimes.com

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Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#321

Post by chris_wot »

nemacol wrote: post #313

I signed up for NYT and canceled the next day. After becoming a paying customer they do not remove the ads from apps, pop ups on the website, etc etc. I was annoyed so I decided to cancel. The cancellation process was also quite annoying. Couldn't just do it through a form, I had to chat or call. I was on hold in the chat room for 35 minutes before someone got on and asked me what I wanted. At that point I was quite…

I just subscribed and added an ad-blocker.

If I wanted to cancel, I'm not going to be able to call though, as I live in Australia. I thought there were laws in some states of the U.S. that meant you have to be able to unsubscribe through a form though?

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#323

Post by mscasts »

jmcmichael wrote: post #286

This implies that only people who have the means and desire to pay for accurate news will get it. Given that accurate information about the world, our society, and its politics is required for making accurate decisions about how to vote and spend one's time and money, shouldn't we start treating journalism as a public good and funding it independent of anyone's ability to come up with a business model that will work?

My country (Sweden) has a state-sponsonsored news outlet. It is one of the most biased ones.

Several other countries in Europe has the same model and it just doesn't work.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#324

Post by warp_factor »

I cannot think of a single mainstream provider that is worth paying for nowadays. What I would like is some neutral fact based news. Without titles implying that one side is better than the other. (If you want an example, open CNN and read any headline about Trump).

Such a Fact based news organization doesn't exist anymore. Ever since the 2016 elections, each outlet had to dig deeper into their partisan trenches.

Since then I get my information from a mix of reading multiple news outlets, together with some independent long form podcasts that don't have as much an agenda as mainstream newspapers.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#325

Post by chris_wot »

warp_factor wrote: post #319
rdschouw wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I moved from NYT to Economist for all of these reasons. NYT went berserk after the 2016 elections if you ask me. Now every article feels like an opinion piece.

I agree with you but to be honest, 95% of the traditional medias decided to chose a camp after the 2016 elections. Since then It is extremely difficult to find a neutral news with clear facts. I distrust the NYT as much as I distrust Fox news.

Are you sure it is bias or justified criticism? From my POV, the "bias" always seems to me to be justifiable criticism of Trump. I mean, the man lies so frequently it's almost impossible to present "his side".

I worry when I see these comments. They seem to make the same mistake that the BBC did when they presented equal time to climate change deniers as they did to climate change scientists.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#326

Post by zht »

chris_wot wrote: post #321
nemacol wrote: post #313

I signed up for NYT and canceled the next day. After becoming a paying customer they do not remove the ads from apps, pop ups on the website, etc etc. I was annoyed so I decided to cancel. The cancellation process was also quite annoying. Couldn't just do it through a form, I had to chat or call. I was on hold in the chat room for 35 minutes before someone got on and asked me what I wanted. At that point I was quite…

I just subscribed and added an ad-blocker. If I wanted to cancel, I'm not going to be able to call though, as I live in Australia. I thought there were laws in some states of the U.S. that meant you have to be able to unsubscribe through a form though?

I'm confused, why can you not call a US number from Australia? Is it prohibitively expensive?

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#327

Post by dhimes »

ytNumbers wrote: post #310
dhimes wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There has also been at least one attempt at a site that facilitated this: pay the journalist you want to follow. It didn't take.

I'd love to find out which startups attempted this. I guess the network effects of YouTube/Patreon were simply too big for them to overcome.

The website I'm aware of is ne.ws (I knew the guy- a seasoned entrepreneur). I don't know what that website is now- same thing but Asian? Anyway I don't think he's doing it any more.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#328

Post by morgancmartin »

0x445442 wrote: post #280
beaconstudios wrote: post #235

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that arguably is another form of political bias - if I want to push position A, I will choose the most ridiculous and deranged proponent of position B to imply that "all rational people choose position A". Like on the issue of climate change - there's clearly some fraction of people who choose to deny it completely, but the more meaningful debate at this point is around how much we can do to prevent it, and what appr…

There are credible scientists who disagree with the climate change narrative. Just because you don't agree with them doesn't make them "nut jobs" or "deniers" or any other label you care to attach. Equating folks who don't agree with a lot of climate change assertions with flat earthers is not productive in any way. And I agree with you're analysis; legacy media typically trot out straw men only to signal how superio…

I have encountered this before and am curious about the alternative take. My understanding of it is that they agree with the popular narrative to the extent that the climate is changing but that they disagree about how conclusive the evidence is that it is caused by humanity, is that correct?

Can anyone point me to hard, unbiased (in your opinion, of course) data that supports the assertion that climate change is caused by humans or otherwise depicts an accurate representation of our current understanding on the subject?

Is it possible that climate change is due to natural and not human forces?

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#329

Post by sneeze-slayer »

nemacol wrote: post #313

I signed up for NYT and canceled the next day. After becoming a paying customer they do not remove the ads from apps, pop ups on the website, etc etc. I was annoyed so I decided to cancel. The cancellation process was also quite annoying. Couldn't just do it through a form, I had to chat or call. I was on hold in the chat room for 35 minutes before someone got on and asked me what I wanted. At that point I was quite…

It's similar to the newspaper. You still see the advertisements in the newspaper even though you paid for it. I guess it would be more expensive without ads.

Re: Want to Stop Fake News? Pay for the Real Thing

#330

Post by bovermyer »

nemacol wrote: post #313

I signed up for NYT and canceled the next day. After becoming a paying customer they do not remove the ads from apps, pop ups on the website, etc etc. I was annoyed so I decided to cancel. The cancellation process was also quite annoying. Couldn't just do it through a form, I had to chat or call. I was on hold in the chat room for 35 minutes before someone got on and asked me what I wanted. At that point I was quite…

The problem is that newspapers still make the majority of their income from advertising. This is why ads still appear after you're subscribed and logged in to their websites.

Shifting to a subscription-only revenue model is not an easy proposition, and requires a huge adjustment that most newspapers are not yet ready to make.

Source: I used to work for a major regional newspaper.

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