There's a strong resistance to paywalls on Hacker News and many subreddits (due to many newspapers historically having no paywalls in the earlier days of the in

There's a strong resistance to paywalls on Hacker News and many subreddits (due to many newspapers historically having no paywalls in the earlier days of the internet), but in other communities, there is actually a broad acceptance for paying for news. For example, the Financial Times, despite being comparatively pricey (I think about $400 USD per year), is doing well and has over 1 million subscribers despite its paywall since 2002 [0]. In 2021, The New York Times reached over 7.5 million subscribers, and is doing quite well financially (in contrast to most other news outlets in the US) [1]. Financial outlets (like the Financial Times, Bloomberg, and The Wall Street Journal) do well because their readership tends to have more money, or work for companies willing to pay for subscriptions (as avoiding the news could put their businesses, especially if in the financial sector, at a competitive disadvantage). The New York Times is an exception rather than the rule, because it offers readers the idea that they can become more well-informed and smarter by reading the newspaper (one can argue whether this is warranted, though it's an effective marketing argument). However, a lot of their revenue also comes from their Games section (crosswords and now Wordle, though Wordle doesn't have a paywall in its current form) and their recipes section. In short, I think people are willing to pay for the news when it can perform a function that can't be accessed elsewhere. Free social media can't give the in-depth coverage that quality newspapers provide, especially when it comes to analysis from a business perspective. Separately, The New York Times has an unparalleled crosswords section and a very strong recipe collection. [0] https://www.axios.com/financial-times-million-digital-only-subscribers-374d5e3a-a0e1-458f-a46f-fc14f2344a03.html https://www.axios.com/financial-times-million-digital-only-s... [1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/business/media/new-york-times-earnings.html https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/04/business/media/new-york-t...