4 ms·

I'm pretty frustrated by advertising too, and some of it is particularly egregious, but at the moment, there is really no other way for many publishers to get p

I'm pretty frustrated by advertising too, and some of it is particularly egregious, but at the moment, there is really no other way for many publishers to get paid. I'm curious, how many services do you subscribe to and pay for content? I pay for a few ad free resources, but certainly a lot of the sites I enjoy don't get my $$.

Griffinsauce 6y ago
Just as an example: I read some dev newsletters, they include a block of paid-for job postings. Highly relevant with the content. Together with the occasional sponsored post link (also still relevant content) this appears to fund them just fine. This isn't "ad free" but it's close enough in my opinion. There's a huge gulf between contextually relevant content curated by the creators and the kind of shite that ad networks push.
monopoledance 6y ago
Because publishers are producing print content for a past era digitally, or, worse, already feed its bastard adapted to advertisement. I get netflix for about 10€/month, but a weekly print newspaper (still filled with ads...) wants 30€/month (4 issues...) here, where a lesser digital only costs still 10€/month... They just don't serve the information I would pay for, but that doesn't mean the clickbaity "free" online "content" is a legit business model. I want sober, on point, timely information on matters of shared/common interest, filtered by journalistic overview, contextualization and reliable sourcing. With the option to subscribe to niche content additions, e.g. art, culture, but of course news shouldn't be a comfort zone only, either. I don't want to co-pay for the clear special interests like the sports/soccer or housing section, at all. And I won't ever pay for opinionated outrage and intellectual masturbation, because nothing else happened or feels like anything at the moment. I don't want some mind-numbing four page zeitgeist piece on cancel culture which starts by making associative yak shaving a storytelling virtue. I want to be briefed in the morning, by my personal intelligence service, like madame president. Publishers are not struggling, they are throwing a fit over a changing information access reality, for 15 years or something. If they cry just a bit longer now, their economic niche is gonna be completely absorbed by technological answers to the question of "What's going on?".

Griffinsauce 6y ago

Just as an example: I read some dev newsletters, they include a block of paid-for job postings. Highly relevant with the content. Together with the occasional sponsored post link (also still relevant content) this appears to fund them just fine. This isn't "ad free" but it's close enough in my opinion. There's a huge gulf between contextually relevant content curated by the creators and the kind of shite that ad networks push.

monopoledance 6y ago

Because publishers are producing print content for a past era digitally, or, worse, already feed its bastard adapted to advertisement. I get netflix for about 10€/month, but a weekly print newspaper (still filled with ads...) wants 30€/month (4 issues...) here, where a lesser digital only costs still 10€/month... They just don't serve the information I would pay for, but that doesn't mean the clickbaity "free" online "content" is a legit business model. I want sober, on point, timely information on matters of shared/common interest, filtered by journalistic overview, contextualization and reliable sourcing. With the option to subscribe to niche content additions, e.g. art, culture, but of course news shouldn't be a comfort zone only, either. I don't want to co-pay for the clear special interests like the sports/soccer or housing section, at all. And I won't ever pay for opinionated outrage and intellectual masturbation, because nothing else happened or feels like anything at the moment. I don't want some mind-numbing four page zeitgeist piece on cancel culture which starts by making associative yak shaving a storytelling virtue. I want to be briefed in the morning, by my personal intelligence service, like madame president. Publishers are not struggling, they are throwing a fit over a changing information access reality, for 15 years or something. If they cry just a bit longer now, their economic niche is gonna be completely absorbed by technological answers to the question of "What's going on?".