I think Reddit provides those consumers with a forum for their content which otherwise would not be seen by as many people, and therefore defends its value up f

I think Reddit provides those consumers with a forum for their content which otherwise would not be seen by as many people, and therefore defends its value up front. The contributors on the other hand get to use reddit for free. Sure, many of them could publish OC on their own websites and get hits. A lot of them, no one would care, because their content is only interesting in the context of the reddit culture and hivemind (this is especially true for comments). Lets not forget how much traffic reddit could drive to your personal site or blog, either. I am surprised it took reddit so long to do something so simple to generate money.