6 ms·

I don't think anyone argues that journalism is in a healthy place today, but what is the alternative? The problem is that real news costs real money to produce.

I don't think anyone argues that journalism is in a healthy place today, but what is the alternative? The problem is that real news costs real money to produce. Newspapers could be not-for-profit but their reporters would still need a salary to do their jobs.

_delirium 7y ago
Some good publications are nonpaywalled nonprofits that rely on donations. Not sure you can make that work in every niche, but two examples: https://www.quantamagazine.org/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/, https://www.texastribune.org/ https://www.texastribune.org/
- danharaj 7y ago
  Quanta has the Simons foundation behind it. How free is a press if it can only live off the good will of a billionaire?
  - levythe 7y ago
    While your question isn't wrong, how is that fundamentally different from how things were before? How can news be free if it relies upon paying readership for its sustained production?
    - danharaj 7y ago
      There was a brief golden age of newspapers that went away with industrialization. It hasn't been Ben Franklin's game for a long time and I think people need to think about what that has meant and will mean.
      - liability 7y ago
        It's my impression that early in Benjamin Franklin's publishing career he published newspapers so he could put ads in them to sell more books. And that later in his publishing career, he used his newspapers more to promote his revolutionary agenda. The man wasn't a journalist.
        deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
  - atotic 7y ago
    Extreme freemium model! Free for everyone, except for that one billionaire :-)
profalseidol 7y ago
DemocracyNow[1] is a good one. 100% free. Noam Chomsky is a regular guest here. [1] https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow I wonder how they make money. Checked wikipedia: Democracy Now Productions, the independent nonprofit organization which produces Democracy Now!, is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, and foundations such as the Ford Foundation,[failed verification] Lannan Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Fund,[4] [5][6][unreliable source?] and does not accept advertisers, corporate underwriting or government funding.[7] The remark from Bill Clinton is a fun bit: Clinton defended his administration's policies and charged Goodman with being "hostile and combative".[51]

_delirium 7y ago

Some good publications are nonpaywalled nonprofits that rely on donations. Not sure you can make that work in every niche, but two examples: https://www.quantamagazine.org/ https://www.quantamagazine.org/, https://www.texastribune.org/ https://www.texastribune.org/

danharaj 7y ago
Quanta has the Simons foundation behind it. How free is a press if it can only live off the good will of a billionaire?
- levythe 7y ago
  While your question isn't wrong, how is that fundamentally different from how things were before? How can news be free if it relies upon paying readership for its sustained production?
  - danharaj 7y ago
    There was a brief golden age of newspapers that went away with industrialization. It hasn't been Ben Franklin's game for a long time and I think people need to think about what that has meant and will mean.
    - liability 7y ago
      It's my impression that early in Benjamin Franklin's publishing career he published newspapers so he could put ads in them to sell more books. And that later in his publishing career, he used his newspapers more to promote his revolutionary agenda. The man wasn't a journalist.
      - deleted 7y ago
        [deleted]
- atotic 7y ago
  Extreme freemium model! Free for everyone, except for that one billionaire :-)

profalseidol 7y ago

DemocracyNow[1] is a good one. 100% free. Noam Chomsky is a regular guest here. [1] https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow https://www.youtube.com/user/democracynow I wonder how they make money. Checked wikipedia: Democracy Now Productions, the independent nonprofit organization which produces Democracy Now!, is funded entirely through contributions from listeners, viewers, and foundations such as the Ford Foundation,[failed verification] Lannan Foundation, J.M. Kaplan Fund,[4] [5][6][unreliable source?] and does not accept advertisers, corporate underwriting or government funding.[7] The remark from Bill Clinton is a fun bit: Clinton defended his administration's policies and charged Goodman with being "hostile and combative".[51]