4 ms·

What's strange is it used to be you would pick up a newspaper at a stand for the day, pay a dollar or whatever, and then have quite a lot of articles to read fo

What's strange is it used to be you would pick up a newspaper at a stand for the day, pay a dollar or whatever, and then have quite a lot of articles to read for that day. But now, it is impossible, the only way is to lock-in. And that may be for the rest of your life if the complaints about the labirynth you may navigate to unsubscribe the nytimes is to be believed. If there was some sort of daily access pass that didn't bother you, require any subscription, perhaps not even ask you to sign up for an email, that would be quite nice.

Santosh83 6y ago
Here in India the printed newspaper is still the dominant mode. Very few people I know subscribe to digital news.
- aero-glide 6y ago
  I wish my monthly print subscription of "The Hindu" also gave me access to online version
grumple 6y ago
These prices are just crazy compared to their old model. Do these papers really think they are providing as much value as Netflix (or more)? Even ignoring journalistic quality...
- apetresc 6y ago
  Uh, I'm almost certain they see themselves as providing more value than Netflix.
  - antepodius 6y ago
    The highest-brow 'orange man bad'.
- podgib 6y ago
  I get a lot more value out of my Economist subscription than my Netflix one.
  - stkdump 6y ago
    But the average netflix subscriber? I maybe watch one movie per week or biweekly, and netflix currently is the cheapest way to get that. Previously it was video rental at 10-20% the price, but of course I had to walk around the block and return it after watching at night, otherwise the price would be double. The internet made everything more convenient/quicker but also massively more expensive, due to the monopoly building nature it has.
- paxys 6y ago
  Why is that so crazy to think of? My New York Times crossword subscription provides me with more value than Netflix right now.
- notJim 6y ago
  Indeed, who needs an informed population when you can have an entertained one.
  - grumple 6y ago
    News is informative in the best case, but often it’s useless noise, and at worse deceptive and manipulative. Netflix has documentaries and informative shows as well as entertainment (I suspect that watchers of The Patriot Act are generally well informed, for example). There’s more to life than the latest outrage. Personally I’ve decided that books are the best way become more informed (just like when I was a child!); news and internet sources are largely clickbait and nonsense. You feel like you’re engaged and informed, but you’re not.
dcminter 6y ago
You can buy a single issue of The Economist as a Kindle magazine. But they don't make it easy for you. If they did I'd do it more often.
nicoburns 6y ago
Newspapers used to make most of their money from adverts. Facebook/Google have stolen all that revenue which is why the media companies have all been struggling to find new business models.
- criddell 6y ago
  Don't forget Craigslist. Classified ads used to be the major source of revenue for a lot of smaller papers.
znpy 6y ago
Ironically enough, buying a physical copy of a newspaper is quite literally "a daily pass", and you get to keep the newspaper in case you want to re-read an article tomorrow, want to dig deeper or share it with somebody else in the house/office. Here in .it most newspapers cost less than 2.50-3€, and you get a physical good. I just checked on one of the most relevant newspapers in Italy (IlSole24Ore) and if you want to browse the current issue there's no option for one-time payment, only subscriptions.
- Spivak 6y ago
  I'm kinda surprised that "newsstand" isn't a popular payment strategy. You just have an account with WaPo and when you want to read the paper you pay $1.50 and get the "digital print edition" which has all the articles published today organized into neat little sections. Newspapers don't have to become Spotify; iTunes is also good.
  - StillBored 6y ago
    But even with the newsstand model, you could always subscribe and have it delivered (usually at a discount vs the news stand). The publishers (and lots of other busineses, think fusion360/photoshop/etc) are just greedy, they can't see the value in thousands of people randomly selecting their product today, and their competitors product tomorrow. They want lock in because its easier.
- tenkabuto 6y ago
  This makes me wonder how effective a Jetbrains model would be for publishers. Pay once to receive access to the entire archive as of the date when your subscription ends. Or a one-time payment to just get access to the archive as of the payment date.
  - lstmemery 6y ago
    Many libraries have access to newspaper archives and it's hard to compete with free!
matthewowen 6y ago
Setting aside that you can still buy the newspaper, you can also buy daily editions of the new York times for kindle for 99 cents each.
munificent 6y ago
I think a big part of this is that the psychology of cash and online purchases is very different. When you're walking down the street with some bills in your pocket and you see a newspaper, this is a low-effort, low-stakes transaction. So you're comfortable making an impulse purchase of a newspaper without thinking about it too much. Thirty seconds later, you've got a paper in hand. But when you have to put your credit card information on a website, the stakes feel higher. There is some level of risk. Do I trust this company to keep my information secure? Will there be repaying payments? Do I really want the newspaper badly enough to type in the 16 digits? All of this requires just enough cognitive effort that it's no longer an impulse purchase so your natural decision aversion kicks in and you just decide to not bother. Newspapers spent a ton of time experimenting with microtransaction business models when the web first got big and they were never able to make it succeed. They do subscriptions because it's the best thing they've found so far that actually works with human psychology.
not2b 6y ago
Back in the peak days of the newspaper stand model, the paper you picked up would be chock full of ads, and the newpaper made most of the money from the ads, not the purchase price. But they could probably figure out an appropriate cost and duplicate that model.

Santosh83 6y ago

Here in India the printed newspaper is still the dominant mode. Very few people I know subscribe to digital news.

aero-glide 6y ago
I wish my monthly print subscription of "The Hindu" also gave me access to online version

grumple 6y ago

These prices are just crazy compared to their old model. Do these papers really think they are providing as much value as Netflix (or more)? Even ignoring journalistic quality...

apetresc 6y ago
Uh, I'm almost certain they see themselves as providing more value than Netflix.
- antepodius 6y ago
  The highest-brow 'orange man bad'.
podgib 6y ago
I get a lot more value out of my Economist subscription than my Netflix one.
- stkdump 6y ago
  But the average netflix subscriber? I maybe watch one movie per week or biweekly, and netflix currently is the cheapest way to get that. Previously it was video rental at 10-20% the price, but of course I had to walk around the block and return it after watching at night, otherwise the price would be double. The internet made everything more convenient/quicker but also massively more expensive, due to the monopoly building nature it has.
paxys 6y ago
Why is that so crazy to think of? My New York Times crossword subscription provides me with more value than Netflix right now.
notJim 6y ago
Indeed, who needs an informed population when you can have an entertained one.
- grumple 6y ago
  News is informative in the best case, but often it’s useless noise, and at worse deceptive and manipulative. Netflix has documentaries and informative shows as well as entertainment (I suspect that watchers of The Patriot Act are generally well informed, for example). There’s more to life than the latest outrage. Personally I’ve decided that books are the best way become more informed (just like when I was a child!); news and internet sources are largely clickbait and nonsense. You feel like you’re engaged and informed, but you’re not.

dcminter 6y ago

You can buy a single issue of The Economist as a Kindle magazine. But they don't make it easy for you. If they did I'd do it more often.

nicoburns 6y ago

Newspapers used to make most of their money from adverts. Facebook/Google have stolen all that revenue which is why the media companies have all been struggling to find new business models.

criddell 6y ago
Don't forget Craigslist. Classified ads used to be the major source of revenue for a lot of smaller papers.

znpy 6y ago

Ironically enough, buying a physical copy of a newspaper is quite literally "a daily pass", and you get to keep the newspaper in case you want to re-read an article tomorrow, want to dig deeper or share it with somebody else in the house/office. Here in .it most newspapers cost less than 2.50-3€, and you get a physical good. I just checked on one of the most relevant newspapers in Italy (IlSole24Ore) and if you want to browse the current issue there's no option for one-time payment, only subscriptions.

Spivak 6y ago
I'm kinda surprised that "newsstand" isn't a popular payment strategy. You just have an account with WaPo and when you want to read the paper you pay $1.50 and get the "digital print edition" which has all the articles published today organized into neat little sections. Newspapers don't have to become Spotify; iTunes is also good.
- StillBored 6y ago
  But even with the newsstand model, you could always subscribe and have it delivered (usually at a discount vs the news stand). The publishers (and lots of other busineses, think fusion360/photoshop/etc) are just greedy, they can't see the value in thousands of people randomly selecting their product today, and their competitors product tomorrow. They want lock in because its easier.
tenkabuto 6y ago
This makes me wonder how effective a Jetbrains model would be for publishers. Pay once to receive access to the entire archive as of the date when your subscription ends. Or a one-time payment to just get access to the archive as of the payment date.
- lstmemery 6y ago
  Many libraries have access to newspaper archives and it's hard to compete with free!

matthewowen 6y ago

Setting aside that you can still buy the newspaper, you can also buy daily editions of the new York times for kindle for 99 cents each.

munificent 6y ago

I think a big part of this is that the psychology of cash and online purchases is very different. When you're walking down the street with some bills in your pocket and you see a newspaper, this is a low-effort, low-stakes transaction. So you're comfortable making an impulse purchase of a newspaper without thinking about it too much. Thirty seconds later, you've got a paper in hand. But when you have to put your credit card information on a website, the stakes feel higher. There is some level of risk. Do I trust this company to keep my information secure? Will there be repaying payments? Do I really want the newspaper badly enough to type in the 16 digits? All of this requires just enough cognitive effort that it's no longer an impulse purchase so your natural decision aversion kicks in and you just decide to not bother. Newspapers spent a ton of time experimenting with microtransaction business models when the web first got big and they were never able to make it succeed. They do subscriptions because it's the best thing they've found so far that actually works with human psychology.

not2b 6y ago

Back in the peak days of the newspaper stand model, the paper you picked up would be chock full of ads, and the newpaper made most of the money from the ads, not the purchase price. But they could probably figure out an appropriate cost and duplicate that model.