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

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.