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> I regularly read The Register (UK), Economist (UK), The Atlantic (US), The Grauniad (UK), Nautilus (US). This is basically three monthly magazines, one fortn

> I regularly read The Register (UK), Economist (UK), The Atlantic (US), The Grauniad (UK), Nautilus (US). This is basically three monthly magazines, one fortnightly and a daily newspaper. That’s a fraction of my load in the days of print — I was regularly getting eight or nine magazines a month, on student money. I don’t want to make assumptions about your financial situation, but your argument is one I hear a lot — “I can’t afford all that!” - even from well-paid people. I don’t think it is a case of “can”. People certainly can afford to pay their regular reads. I think the problem is more that people’s expectations have been changed to expect media for free, and maybe carry a load of 2-3 subscription charges a month for things like Spotify or cloud services. This is a big, big expectation change from eg the 1990s.

igravious 9y ago
> I was regularly getting eight or nine magazines a month, on student money. How much are you spending monthly now may I ask? The difference is this. If I buy a CD or DVD then I can make copies, consume them on the device of my choice (with suitable transcoding and loading), I theoretically have them forever. With the new model once I unsubscribe from my movie or music cloud service I no longer have access. All I'm doing is renting. For that I don't expect to pay as much, I get no physical media, I no artwork. Totally different model. I would be prepared to pay a reasonable amount every month for one each of journalism / movies / music – I think that's fair. I'll purchase the physical media of the bands I love, the directors/actors/franchises I love, the print/journalism I love† – there's not a hope in hell given my current situation that I could subscribe to six or seven or more print outlets. † I forgot to mention The TLS – I guess if push came to shove I'd subscribe to The TLS, The Economist, and one other, perhaps it might even be Nautilus.
- Jaruzel 9y ago
  For online news sources that you pay for, you could just print to PDF the article after you've read it. Thus you would not be 'renting' the right to view it, but would have a non-expiring offline copy too. As long as you don't then redistribute the PDF, I can't see people getting too upset about it (until Web DRM is baked directly into the browser controls, and printing becomes blocked)
- bonaldi 9y ago
  I'm probably spending less on text now, because there aren't many pay-for substitutes for all the tech magazines I used to read. Print is now down to just Private Eye and the BJP; online subs include Guardian, FT, Economist, Spotify, Mubi, BFI, Netflix etc > I would be prepared to pay a reasonable amount every month for one each of journalism / movies / music I guess this is equivalent to saying "I'll see one movie a month, buy one album and get a daily paper". Which is a bit spartan for me, but totally reasonable on a tight budget.

igravious 9y ago

> I was regularly getting eight or nine magazines a month, on student money. How much are you spending monthly now may I ask? The difference is this. If I buy a CD or DVD then I can make copies, consume them on the device of my choice (with suitable transcoding and loading), I theoretically have them forever. With the new model once I unsubscribe from my movie or music cloud service I no longer have access. All I'm doing is renting. For that I don't expect to pay as much, I get no physical media, I no artwork. Totally different model. I would be prepared to pay a reasonable amount every month for one each of journalism / movies / music – I think that's fair. I'll purchase the physical media of the bands I love, the directors/actors/franchises I love, the print/journalism I love† – there's not a hope in hell given my current situation that I could subscribe to six or seven or more print outlets. † I forgot to mention The TLS – I guess if push came to shove I'd subscribe to The TLS, The Economist, and one other, perhaps it might even be Nautilus.

Jaruzel 9y ago
For online news sources that you pay for, you could just print to PDF the article after you've read it. Thus you would not be 'renting' the right to view it, but would have a non-expiring offline copy too. As long as you don't then redistribute the PDF, I can't see people getting too upset about it (until Web DRM is baked directly into the browser controls, and printing becomes blocked)
bonaldi 9y ago
I'm probably spending less on text now, because there aren't many pay-for substitutes for all the tech magazines I used to read. Print is now down to just Private Eye and the BJP; online subs include Guardian, FT, Economist, Spotify, Mubi, BFI, Netflix etc > I would be prepared to pay a reasonable amount every month for one each of journalism / movies / music I guess this is equivalent to saying "I'll see one movie a month, buy one album and get a daily paper". Which is a bit spartan for me, but totally reasonable on a tight budget.