But can it live without freeloading readers? I don’t know the answer to that but it’s certainly not as simple as ‘sparkling having a dramatic power over the pub

But can it live without freeloading readers? I don’t know the answer to that but it’s certainly not as simple as ‘sparkling having a dramatic power over the publisher. If he won’t pay for subscriptions and he won’t view their ads (nor participate in the governmental mandates he can vote on) why should the economist serve him content at all?