and because it's almost trivial to run a subscriber supported site out of business 3 steps: 1 - fund high quality, totally free content, great UI, minimal ads

and because it's almost trivial to run a subscriber supported site out of business 3 steps: 1 - fund high quality, totally free content, great UI, minimal ads 2 - poach customers from subscriber sites, wait them out. will take about a year. they'll go broke. 3 - start to optimize for "engagement" (ad views). profit.