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> And if you want to support your favorite news sources, we’ve made it simple to subscribe with your Google account. This means no more forms, credit card numbe
by forapurpose 8y ago
> And if you want to support your favorite news sources, we’ve made it simple to subscribe with your Google account. This means no more forms, credit card numbers, or new passwords. And soon, thanks to the new Subscribe with Google platform (launched as a part of the Google News Initiative), you’ll get access to your paid content everywhere—on all platforms and devices, on Google News, Google Search, and on publishers’ own websites.
The upside is that it's a desperately needed solution to funding journalism. Hopefully people can pay per article, making quality journalism better funded and far more available (many people who can afford one article can't afford a year subscription, I assume).
But the cost is far too high: Google knows everything you read, and becomes the gatekeeper for journalism. Yikes. For those not worried, imagine the day when Google ownership/management shifts from the current well-intentioned people to someone else. That day will come.
- crazygringo 8y agoAll I want is an option to pay $10/mo for news to all sources, and let each publisher receive the proportion of that that my clicks determine.
- imh 8y agoWouldn't that exacerbate clickbait?
- hekfu 8y agoIf get clickbaited 2 or three times, I stop browsing your site.
- gowld 8y agoThat's less than the price of any single news source. Why would they offer that price to you?
- 16bytes 8y agoBecause the vast majority of news consumers online are ad-supported non-paying customers. I'm not going to pay $20/mo each to WaPo, NYTimes and WSJ. But I would pay $20/mo for "entry" level subscriptions to all of them, which I'm pretty sure is more than the Ad revenue that I would otherwise bring in. $10/mo may not be the best price point, but IMHO having cheaper pay-as-go options would drive in a lot of unrealized revenue.