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“If smaller newspapers cannot make it, it means they don't offer a good enough service to justify their existence. If they were good and provided value, people

“If smaller newspapers cannot make it, it means they don't offer a good enough service to justify their existence. If they were good and provided value, people would pay for it (like they do the NYT).” I don’t think so. What happens is that the price would be too low to overcome the mental barrier of whipping out a wallet to pay for yet another recurring service, something people are only willing to do for larger websites. We currently do not have a good solution for this. It’s weird to see so many HNers act like it’s a good thing that only large websites like NYT have a real business model once ads completely die. Or how Reddit will outlive individual forums because nobody is going to pay per forum. But unless something changes, that’s going to be the reality soon.

nkkollaw 8y ago
> I don’t think so. What happens is that the price would be too low to overcome the mental barrier of whipping out a wallet to pay for yet another recurring service, something people are only willing to do for larger websites. Why does the price have to be low? You can pay yearly, for instance. However, the main point I was trying to make is that with Patreon people voluntarily contribute $1, $5 or whatever. It hasn't been a problem and it's done every day. If you're not willing to put up with "whipping out a wallet for yet another recurring service", it means you don't value the product. Again, I don't even think it's the size of the website because many community-supported projects are 1 solo content creator.