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It just doesn't work. Most of our readers don't pay for news, and if they did, they'd probably pay for larger national papers. Back in the day of paper newspap
by chuckdries 9y ago
It just doesn't work. Most of our readers don't pay for news, and if they did, they'd probably pay for larger national papers.
Back in the day of paper newspapers, our subscription fees had to be augmented with ad revenue as well.
- na85 9y agoSounds to me like a business model failing to adapt. The same phenomenon is occurring with car dealerships facing Tesla.
- chuckdries 9y agoYeah if we stopped selling ad space we'd be a failing business model, but we are selling ads, we are making money. It's a working business model right now. There's also the philosophical argument, our mandate is to inform the public, how can we do that if we paywall everything? Not everyone can afford the paywall, and even if they could there's still the UX friction of handling payment. The bottom line is we need to pay people to keep track of local government full time. It truly is a full time job. If we don't, who else will? In order to do this and allow concerned or interested citizens to share the things we learn on Facebook, ads make a lot more sense.