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There is blendle, but there's a problem we're running into. What we spend our time on is not necessarily what we want to make sure exists. Some may spend a lo

There is blendle, but there's a problem we're running into. What we spend our time on is not necessarily what we want to make sure exists. Some may spend a lot of time watching TV, and spend almost no time interacting with the fire department, but they want to make sure that the fire department is always available. This type of demand can't be financed through usage fees or advertising, it has to be met through taxes or a subscription (BTW fire departments were and in some places still are financed by subscription). We need to figure out how news and information fit into what we demand as citizens.

dalbasal 9y ago
This is a bit of a problem. Fire departments are a classic public service, local monopoly, emergency use only... Journalism benefits from diversity, choice and independence. OTOH, most countries have a public broadcaster funded by a TV tax or somesuch. These are (IMO) hard to justify as public services in 2018. Newspapers are becoming the place where the gap is, and I think public funding is justifiable. The trouble is finding and implementing a good way of using it, one that preserves independance. On the third hand, I think it is very dangerous guaranteeing business continuity to any business or sector. Disruption happens and the publications themselves need to figure out alternatives. Like the Guardian found, the type of revenue model is intertwined with content and quality. I feel that independant publications scraping to find business models is likely to yield some important finds, like this patronage based model. We need to remember the distinction between currently important publications and journalism. Like the difference between pro business and pro economy. These can be at odds with eachother in some cases.