2 ms·
Lookit all the "information overload" sentiment; and how little of the news is actually relevant to our daily lives. We don't wanna pay for it because we know
by h2odragon 4y ago
Lookit all the "information overload" sentiment; and how little of the news is actually relevant to our daily lives.
We don't wanna pay for it because we know we don't need it and it isn't good for us. The grip of addiction or "go along" is strong enough for some to cough up cash, but it's not the vast market of unfillable desire that the publishers want to sell to their advertisers.
Newspapers cost more than their sale price to print: just because you've paid for it doesn't mean you're no longer the product the publisher is selling. It's just a way the publisher makes you seem more attractive to the real market. They know and use their "unpaid circulation" numbers too.
The destruction of "print costs" in the internet age has not changed the underlying dynamic that much.
- sydbarrett74 4y agoExactly. The real cost of running a good paper is renting the office space and paying the meat-sacks (read: actual human beings) to go out there on a beat and gather the news. Printing the physical artefact was probably always low on the COGS.
- bombcar 4y agoThe physical paper had advantages though - if you were interested in one or two things (say sports and comics) you'd still see the headlines and other content, which meant that the advertisers were willing to spend. The internet really lets you 'focus' on a particular article/video and ignore basically everything else.