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Would you pay for an LA Times subscription? Do you know anybody that would? The newspaper business is struggling as is. Every time a publication is blocked in

Would you pay for an LA Times subscription? Do you know anybody that would? The newspaper business is struggling as is. Every time a publication is blocked in Europe people complain. Ads were the answer for most online publications, but showing targeted ads now pose a legal risk. I don't know about their business ops, but I'd suspect they've done the math and decided it isn't worth the effort to change their platform so people can read for free in Europe.

Markoff 8y ago
you know there are news websites based in Europe right?
- ceejayoz 8y ago
  Sure, and they're a) subject to European regulators and b) have a largely European audience. The same is not true for the LA Times.
  - Markoff 8y ago
    and their economic model its vastly different from american?
Cthulhu_ 8y ago
You don't need to be not-GDPR-compliant to display ads and do user tracking. Just inform the user and give them the option to opt out of tracking / storing data. Ads won't be as optimized for the user, but they'll still be there. And of course they can offer a subscription.
- vonmoltke 8y ago
  > You don't need to be not-GDPR-compliant to display ads and do user tracking. You also don't need to be tracking anything to be non-compliant.
- zeveb 8y ago
  Of course, offering a subscription means tracking users means being subject to the GDPR!
nottorp 8y ago
Item one: I wouldn't subscribe to any old school newspaper from the anglo-saxon world because they make it extremely hard to unsubscribe. About the same respect for their readers as their targeted ads they can't give up on. Item two: I wouldn't subscribe to a newspaper just because i read articles linked from HN occasionally, so I'll just pass on LA times. Item three: whenever someone comes up with a working micropayment platform, I might throw them 2-3 cents if they get linked on HN. No more. Yes, I haven't read the original article. I won't even through the free links. They don't want me, they don't get me.

Markoff 8y ago

you know there are news websites based in Europe right?

ceejayoz 8y ago
Sure, and they're a) subject to European regulators and b) have a largely European audience. The same is not true for the LA Times.
- Markoff 8y ago
  and their economic model its vastly different from american?

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

You don't need to be not-GDPR-compliant to display ads and do user tracking. Just inform the user and give them the option to opt out of tracking / storing data. Ads won't be as optimized for the user, but they'll still be there. And of course they can offer a subscription.

vonmoltke 8y ago
> You don't need to be not-GDPR-compliant to display ads and do user tracking. You also don't need to be tracking anything to be non-compliant.
zeveb 8y ago
Of course, offering a subscription means tracking users means being subject to the GDPR!

nottorp 8y ago

Item one: I wouldn't subscribe to any old school newspaper from the anglo-saxon world because they make it extremely hard to unsubscribe. About the same respect for their readers as their targeted ads they can't give up on. Item two: I wouldn't subscribe to a newspaper just because i read articles linked from HN occasionally, so I'll just pass on LA times. Item three: whenever someone comes up with a working micropayment platform, I might throw them 2-3 cents if they get linked on HN. No more. Yes, I haven't read the original article. I won't even through the free links. They don't want me, they don't get me.