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Younger generations need to pay for news. Local news is important for democracy since local news feeds alerts national news. Ad networks by providing news for

by acd 4y ago

Younger generations need to pay for news. Local news is important for democracy since local news feeds alerts national news. Ad networks by providing news for free is destroying democracy.

shadowgovt 4y ago
How does one incentivize this? Because younger generations ain't gonna do it for charity reasons; they don't have surplus income to donate to charity.
- ironmagma 4y ago
  Bring back pay per newspaper vending machines? They were awful and broken all the time before, and now they’re just free. If it’s cheap entertainment, I’d rather pay for that than iTunes movies.
  - lotsofpulp 4y ago
    If people were willing to pay for them, why would they have been made free in the first place?
    - ironmagma 4y ago
      Probably because it’s cheaper to give them away than to keep repairing haphazardly designed vending machines. Maybe they should just make them like the snack vending machines.
      - lotsofpulp 4y ago
        Based on the fact that newspaper businesses had many, many decades to come up with a better machine, I would assume the cost of developing this machine is not worth it.
        ironmagma 4y ago
        That’s sort of ex-post-facto reasoning though. By that logic, there’s nothing that could save the newspapers, because they had decades to do it and they didn’t.
        lotsofpulp 4y ago
        That is not the reasoning. The reasoning is for decades, newspapers sold many papers and made a decent amount of money, compared to today. Therefore, the incentive to create better machines that allow them to sell more and prevent theft was higher then than today, and yet they did not. Either the technology did not exist back then, or more likely, it simply was not worth the cost of better machines for the additional revenue. Therefore, if it was not worth it back when newspapers were in high demand, why would it be worth developing today at a fraction of the demand?
        sicp-enjoyer 4y ago
        The money makers for newspapers were always ads and classifieds. Paying for the paper was just to hopefully cover printing and distribution.
- MetaWhirledPeas 4y ago
  > How does one incentivize this? "Local influencers" needs to become a thing, if it isn't already. That's the answer to the local news problem. If you want to know how to become a successful influencer just ask the popular kids at a school. Yes quality of content matters, but there's a mystical charisma component at the center of it. Once local influencers have been established in an area then quality can gradually take on more of a role. Those who provide sensationalistic news will get their crowd, but some (hopefully those with citations, less sensationalism, and less bias) will eventually gain the status of "trustworthy". And over time some will gain enough popularity to start looking more like a normal business again, with local sponsorships and the whole thing. This may seem a bit depressing at first but it's completely normal. As publication relies less and less on expensive machinery and elaborate organizations it will naturally gravitate toward individuals. Conglomerates like Sinclair only exist to pick on the carcasses of dead mediums.
  - robonerd 4y ago
    > "Local influencers" needs to become a thing, if it isn't already. That's the answer to the local news problem If that's the answer, then I hope the whole industry curls up and dies now. If you want me to pay a single cent for trash like that, you'd have to stick a gun in my face.
    - MetaWhirledPeas 4y ago
      I'm just being a realist, and I'm not suggesting people will pay. I realize "influencer" is a trigger word, but not all of them are Tik Tok dancers and vapid teens. I lump people like YouTubers in here. They've learned how to make money from sponsorships, and maybe that sort of thing can happen at a local level too. And hopefully with written media of some sort (written, not printed... so blogs).
mschuster91 4y ago
The problem is, many of our generation can't afford to pay for local news that we barely have the time and the mental energy to consume after working 10 or more hours and then commuting. No, cutting our Netflix and switching it to some local paper won't work either, because we don't need to engage our brains with some random Netflix stuff. In contrast, pensioners have more than enough free time to read the news and vote - as evidenced by just about every voter turnout statistic. Want to fix politics? Make it possible for young people to actually engage with democracy again.
- tgv 4y ago
  > In contrast, pensioners have more than enough free time to read the news and vote Not with that attitude. I'm reading a newspaper since I was 14. If they don't make time to read a newspaper, they're just not interested. Don't try to sugarcoat it with some pointless victimization.
  - rcMgD2BwE72F 4y ago
    How many hours did you have to work to afford a place to live, back then? Did that change somehow? If so, how can that affect the time left to entertain oneself and read about the news? Also, how was the news back then? Was it all about making marketing profile and click-baiting?
    - meatsauce 4y ago
      - rcMgD2BwE72F 4y ago
        You aren't answering the questions but okay. But FYI, I earn more than my country's average household's wealth in a year in salary only. I don't know who you're debating with.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
yieldcrv 4y ago
Not local really but I bit the bullet on NY Times, WSJ, Bloomberg I miiight do LA Times (doubt) Paywall circumvention doesnt work well/at all on mobile I agree that ad bombing eyeball news is very low quality in comparison to subscription news. Its a night and day difference. Its distressing that nobody else I know can really see or access these articles, being pulled by every clickbait version of an event
- throwaway1777 4y ago
  Do you live in NY or DC? Otherwise this is pretty much the opposite of supporting local news.
  - yieldcrv 4y ago
    Yes the opposite of local but congruent with paying at all
sicp-enjoyer 4y ago
Paying for twitter screenshots?
JacobThreeThree 4y ago
>Younger generations need to pay for news. Add it to the list of things that younger generations are somehow required to purchase. https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list-2017-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list...
windowsrookie 4y ago
Sometimes I walk by the TV while my mother is watching the local news. It seems to always just be reporting about thefts/gunshots downtown, then some new product available, followed by 15 minutes of weather and sports. I don't find much value in any of that information.

by acd 4y ago

Younger generations need to pay for news. Local news is important for democracy since local news feeds alerts national news. Ad networks by providing news for free is destroying democracy.

shadowgovt 4y ago

How does one incentivize this? Because younger generations ain't gonna do it for charity reasons; they don't have surplus income to donate to charity.

ironmagma 4y ago
Bring back pay per newspaper vending machines? They were awful and broken all the time before, and now they’re just free. If it’s cheap entertainment, I’d rather pay for that than iTunes movies.
- lotsofpulp 4y ago
  If people were willing to pay for them, why would they have been made free in the first place?
  - ironmagma 4y ago
    Probably because it’s cheaper to give them away than to keep repairing haphazardly designed vending machines. Maybe they should just make them like the snack vending machines.
    - lotsofpulp 4y ago
      Based on the fact that newspaper businesses had many, many decades to come up with a better machine, I would assume the cost of developing this machine is not worth it.
      - ironmagma 4y ago
        That’s sort of ex-post-facto reasoning though. By that logic, there’s nothing that could save the newspapers, because they had decades to do it and they didn’t.
        lotsofpulp 4y ago
        That is not the reasoning. The reasoning is for decades, newspapers sold many papers and made a decent amount of money, compared to today. Therefore, the incentive to create better machines that allow them to sell more and prevent theft was higher then than today, and yet they did not. Either the technology did not exist back then, or more likely, it simply was not worth the cost of better machines for the additional revenue. Therefore, if it was not worth it back when newspapers were in high demand, why would it be worth developing today at a fraction of the demand?
        sicp-enjoyer 4y ago
        The money makers for newspapers were always ads and classifieds. Paying for the paper was just to hopefully cover printing and distribution.
MetaWhirledPeas 4y ago
> How does one incentivize this? "Local influencers" needs to become a thing, if it isn't already. That's the answer to the local news problem. If you want to know how to become a successful influencer just ask the popular kids at a school. Yes quality of content matters, but there's a mystical charisma component at the center of it. Once local influencers have been established in an area then quality can gradually take on more of a role. Those who provide sensationalistic news will get their crowd, but some (hopefully those with citations, less sensationalism, and less bias) will eventually gain the status of "trustworthy". And over time some will gain enough popularity to start looking more like a normal business again, with local sponsorships and the whole thing. This may seem a bit depressing at first but it's completely normal. As publication relies less and less on expensive machinery and elaborate organizations it will naturally gravitate toward individuals. Conglomerates like Sinclair only exist to pick on the carcasses of dead mediums.
- robonerd 4y ago
  > "Local influencers" needs to become a thing, if it isn't already. That's the answer to the local news problem If that's the answer, then I hope the whole industry curls up and dies now. If you want me to pay a single cent for trash like that, you'd have to stick a gun in my face.
  - MetaWhirledPeas 4y ago
    I'm just being a realist, and I'm not suggesting people will pay. I realize "influencer" is a trigger word, but not all of them are Tik Tok dancers and vapid teens. I lump people like YouTubers in here. They've learned how to make money from sponsorships, and maybe that sort of thing can happen at a local level too. And hopefully with written media of some sort (written, not printed... so blogs).

mschuster91 4y ago

The problem is, many of our generation can't afford to pay for local news that we barely have the time and the mental energy to consume after working 10 or more hours and then commuting. No, cutting our Netflix and switching it to some local paper won't work either, because we don't need to engage our brains with some random Netflix stuff. In contrast, pensioners have more than enough free time to read the news and vote - as evidenced by just about every voter turnout statistic. Want to fix politics? Make it possible for young people to actually engage with democracy again.

tgv 4y ago
> In contrast, pensioners have more than enough free time to read the news and vote Not with that attitude. I'm reading a newspaper since I was 14. If they don't make time to read a newspaper, they're just not interested. Don't try to sugarcoat it with some pointless victimization.
- rcMgD2BwE72F 4y ago
  How many hours did you have to work to afford a place to live, back then? Did that change somehow? If so, how can that affect the time left to entertain oneself and read about the news? Also, how was the news back then? Was it all about making marketing profile and click-baiting?
  - meatsauce 4y ago
    - rcMgD2BwE72F 4y ago
      You aren't answering the questions but okay. But FYI, I earn more than my country's average household's wealth in a year in salary only. I don't know who you're debating with.
deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

yieldcrv 4y ago

Not local really but I bit the bullet on NY Times, WSJ, Bloomberg I miiight do LA Times (doubt) Paywall circumvention doesnt work well/at all on mobile I agree that ad bombing eyeball news is very low quality in comparison to subscription news. Its a night and day difference. Its distressing that nobody else I know can really see or access these articles, being pulled by every clickbait version of an event

throwaway1777 4y ago
Do you live in NY or DC? Otherwise this is pretty much the opposite of supporting local news.
- yieldcrv 4y ago
  Yes the opposite of local but congruent with paying at all

sicp-enjoyer 4y ago

Paying for twitter screenshots?

JacobThreeThree 4y ago

>Younger generations need to pay for news. Add it to the list of things that younger generations are somehow required to purchase. https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list-2017-8 https://www.businessinsider.com/millennials-are-killing-list...

windowsrookie 4y ago

Sometimes I walk by the TV while my mother is watching the local news. It seems to always just be reporting about thefts/gunshots downtown, then some new product available, followed by 15 minutes of weather and sports. I don't find much value in any of that information.