3 ms·

I canceled all my subscriptions. I would happily pay 1 organization good money for subscriptions to the top 6-10 papers. I'm really surprised they haven't tried

by us0r 10y ago

I canceled all my subscriptions. I would happily pay 1 organization good money for subscriptions to the top 6-10 papers. I'm really surprised they haven't tried this yet.

ChuckMcM 10y ago
Try Blendle[1]. Disclaimer I use their service and like it. They let you fill your "wallet" with money which doesn't expire, and then they give you access to a bunch of different newspapers on a per-story basis for a variable amount of money per story based on the newspaper. So if you were spending $20/month on a NYT subscription you can put $20/Month into your Blendle account and read the stories of interest on the Times, WSJ, Post, Economist, etc and often have money left over. They have a generous "don't like it and we'll refund your money" which is quick and simple to use (I've used this probably half a dozen times when the article turned out to be just fluff). The articles have no additional advertising, render well on mobile or desktop or tablet. I dropped my NYT and WSJ subscriptions and read them on Blendle, that has cost me significantly less than the combined subscription rates. [1] https://blendle.com/ https://blendle.com/
- macintux 10y ago
  Thank you! I've long wanted some sort of micropayment system for news, this looks promising.
- thedarkginger 10y ago
  Glad you shared. I found OP frustrating in that the core problem of digital publishing for profit doesn't seem to be the inability to price the content correctly but rather publishers' inability to deliver a product that customers would even pay for. When a Google News search reveals multiple copies of near identical stories (let's say NYT, a wire service, and a local paper using a wire service), the value proposition to a user of paying for one newspaper is generally low. Never made sense to me why the Netflix model (that Blendle seems closest to cracking right now) was never applied to accessing good journalism in one place.
amelius 10y ago
Another option would be that news companies build an app and sell content through the app store. I'm not in favor of this solution though, because I don't want one company to know what I read, and I don't like the idea of one company influencing what I read and I wouldn't want a near monopolist to put a tax on my news.

by us0r 10y ago

I canceled all my subscriptions. I would happily pay 1 organization good money for subscriptions to the top 6-10 papers. I'm really surprised they haven't tried this yet.

ChuckMcM 10y ago

Try Blendle[1]. Disclaimer I use their service and like it. They let you fill your "wallet" with money which doesn't expire, and then they give you access to a bunch of different newspapers on a per-story basis for a variable amount of money per story based on the newspaper. So if you were spending $20/month on a NYT subscription you can put $20/Month into your Blendle account and read the stories of interest on the Times, WSJ, Post, Economist, etc and often have money left over. They have a generous "don't like it and we'll refund your money" which is quick and simple to use (I've used this probably half a dozen times when the article turned out to be just fluff). The articles have no additional advertising, render well on mobile or desktop or tablet. I dropped my NYT and WSJ subscriptions and read them on Blendle, that has cost me significantly less than the combined subscription rates. [1] https://blendle.com/ https://blendle.com/

macintux 10y ago
Thank you! I've long wanted some sort of micropayment system for news, this looks promising.
thedarkginger 10y ago
Glad you shared. I found OP frustrating in that the core problem of digital publishing for profit doesn't seem to be the inability to price the content correctly but rather publishers' inability to deliver a product that customers would even pay for. When a Google News search reveals multiple copies of near identical stories (let's say NYT, a wire service, and a local paper using a wire service), the value proposition to a user of paying for one newspaper is generally low. Never made sense to me why the Netflix model (that Blendle seems closest to cracking right now) was never applied to accessing good journalism in one place.

amelius 10y ago

Another option would be that news companies build an app and sell content through the app store. I'm not in favor of this solution though, because I don't want one company to know what I read, and I don't like the idea of one company influencing what I read and I wouldn't want a near monopolist to put a tax on my news.