3 ms·

I really wish publications would push for a bundled model and work together to achieve it. I would pay $15/month to not have to deal with a paywall on major pub

I really wish publications would push for a bundled model and work together to achieve it. I would pay $15/month to not have to deal with a paywall on major publications; but I don't read them often enough individually to justify the cost. I jump around from The Times, The Post, The New Yorker, WSJ, Economist, and various others. The one publication subscription model works in print...but online when someone shares a link to an Economist article, I'm not paying their fee just for that article when I already pay for 2 others. Twitter tried to do something like this with Twitter Blue, but it failed miserably and lacked crucial partners, even pre-Elon.

rebeccaskinner 4y ago
I briefly worked at a startup that was trying to build this. It's technically possible in a lot of different ways, but the business culture is so far removed from this approach that it seems impossible right now. The sites that are still successful are all convinced they are on track to own the entire online news media market and won't do anything to give up an absolute iron grip on their experience and readership, especially if it might mean acknowledging the existence of a competing news source. The smaller regional and local news sites are all basically zombie companies now anyway. They buy an off-the-shelf newspaper CMS tool, add in every possible monetization plugin they can possibly cram into the tool, an AP feed, and hire like 3 part time journalists to add in just enough shallow local flavor that nobody cares about so that they can try to get some clicks in their local market. They aren't motivated to participate in systems that let you buy content, because they don't actually make any content.
criddell 4y ago
I’m on a free trial of Apple News+ right now, but the model is basically pay $10 / month and get access to lots of stuff: https://www.apple.com/apple-news/publications/ https://www.apple.com/apple-news/publications/ I really like that the publications don’t get my email or physical address. No spam in my post office box or inbox.
- gnicholas 4y ago
  My understanding is that Apple News+ subscribers get access to some of the content from these publishers, but not all of the content.
  - criddell 4y ago
    That could be. I have a 90-day trial and I’m about half way through and so far I haven’t found anything missing, but then I haven’t really been looking. Anytime I open the app I never have a hard time finding something to read. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. It’s nice that a lot of publications have back issues available as well.
- partiallypro 4y ago
  Yeah, but that doesn't help me as a non-Apple customer. There should be a cross-platform attempt at this. I think it really comes down to just publishers being old fashioned.
PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago
NYT alone costs > $15/month. Hard to imagine a bundle costing only that, unless it comes with article count restrictions. That would annoy the crap out of me.
- partiallypro 4y ago
  $15/mo is just an example, but I would pay even with an article count restriction per publication because I don't constantly read the Times, I just go to various outlets on who seems to have the best story.
asdff 4y ago
Look into your local library system, sometimes you get free access to these papers through your credentials.
whamlastxmas 4y ago
I think it's foolish to expect traditional media businesses to do absolutely anything progressive in terms of access to their content. The wide variety of streaming services we have now only exist because they were effectively forced to do it or slowly die out as disrupters did it instead.

rebeccaskinner 4y ago

I briefly worked at a startup that was trying to build this. It's technically possible in a lot of different ways, but the business culture is so far removed from this approach that it seems impossible right now. The sites that are still successful are all convinced they are on track to own the entire online news media market and won't do anything to give up an absolute iron grip on their experience and readership, especially if it might mean acknowledging the existence of a competing news source. The smaller regional and local news sites are all basically zombie companies now anyway. They buy an off-the-shelf newspaper CMS tool, add in every possible monetization plugin they can possibly cram into the tool, an AP feed, and hire like 3 part time journalists to add in just enough shallow local flavor that nobody cares about so that they can try to get some clicks in their local market. They aren't motivated to participate in systems that let you buy content, because they don't actually make any content.

criddell 4y ago

I’m on a free trial of Apple News+ right now, but the model is basically pay $10 / month and get access to lots of stuff: https://www.apple.com/apple-news/publications/ https://www.apple.com/apple-news/publications/ I really like that the publications don’t get my email or physical address. No spam in my post office box or inbox.

gnicholas 4y ago
My understanding is that Apple News+ subscribers get access to some of the content from these publishers, but not all of the content.
- criddell 4y ago
  That could be. I have a 90-day trial and I’m about half way through and so far I haven’t found anything missing, but then I haven’t really been looking. Anytime I open the app I never have a hard time finding something to read. Seems like a pretty good deal to me. It’s nice that a lot of publications have back issues available as well.
partiallypro 4y ago
Yeah, but that doesn't help me as a non-Apple customer. There should be a cross-platform attempt at this. I think it really comes down to just publishers being old fashioned.

PaulDavisThe1st 4y ago

NYT alone costs > $15/month. Hard to imagine a bundle costing only that, unless it comes with article count restrictions. That would annoy the crap out of me.

partiallypro 4y ago
$15/mo is just an example, but I would pay even with an article count restriction per publication because I don't constantly read the Times, I just go to various outlets on who seems to have the best story.

asdff 4y ago

Look into your local library system, sometimes you get free access to these papers through your credentials.

whamlastxmas 4y ago

I think it's foolish to expect traditional media businesses to do absolutely anything progressive in terms of access to their content. The wide variety of streaming services we have now only exist because they were effectively forced to do it or slowly die out as disrupters did it instead.