So I get ads are terrible, obviously. I run ad-blockers all the time. But people also get angry at paywalls. So that leaves me wondering, if not through ads or subscriptions, how is a news publisher supposed to sustain itself?

  • Iconoclast@feddit.uk
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    7 hours ago

    Most people would prefer it to be both free and ad-free and just make it work somehow. Doesn’t matter how - use magic or whatever.

    • skulblaka@sh.itjust.works
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      3 hours ago

      Yeah, it should be tax funded and overseen by an independent oversight group.

      I don’t know why this is such a difficult thing. Access to information is necessary for a healthy society. Things that are necessary for a healthy society but aren’t profitable should be tax funded, that’s the purpose of the taxes.

      • Iconoclast@feddit.uk
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        3 hours ago

        The Finnish version of Yle is the only news publisher I follow and it is tax payer fumded and ad free. It’s kind of a Finnish BBC. It’s not unbiased but broadly speaking their journalism is of quite high quality. It’s not of much use for people not from Finland but just an example that such thing can be done.

      • Iconoclast@feddit.uk
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        3 hours ago

        This isn’t about how the consumer can get paid content for free but about how the creator can sustain the production of that content when hardly anyone is willing to pay for it.

        • Valmond@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          2 hours ago

          Yeah sure I know, I’m just fooling around. Personally I think music played on the radio (any radio, even your homemade amateur radio) should be paid for not by the radio but the government.

          Maybe news could be financed similarly. But with no strings attached of course.