6 ms·

I don't want to pay for basic news. It's a commodity. If there was a source for deeper analysis that I liked I'd consider paying for it. I used to do that bu

I don't want to pay for basic news. It's a commodity. If there was a source for deeper analysis that I liked I'd consider paying for it. I used to do that but those sources all went crazy around 2016 and haven't recovered.

tdb7893 2y ago
The thing I am happy to pay for is investigative journalism. I've been very happy to donate to Pro Publica
eli_gottlieb 2y ago
>I don't want to pay for basic news. It's a commodity. A commodity is something you pay for! No snark, it's one thing to suggest that we pay wholesale or in bulk-retail for news, another thing to suggest that a commodity can be free.
hinkley 2y ago
In the old days the price of the FCC granting you a license for a TV channel was that you were obliged to provide news as a public service. It was an obligation yes but also a responsibility, and that brought a note of sobriety. When stations instead started trying to make news profitable is where public discourse went to die.
pj_mukh 2y ago
I like the Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker etc., but I like like 30-40% of all of em, so, what should I subscribe too? I guess an aggregator like Apple News+ ?
ameister14 2y ago
I think there are some specialized places I'm willing to pay for deeper analysis. Some parts of Bloomberg are good for that; for example Matt Levine writes on financial and legal issues there and is excellent.
seabass-labrax 2y ago
Basic news is a commodity when it is reporting on already-public records, e.g. Hansard or the Congressional Record. For reporting on organized events such as press conferences, it is mostly a commodity as the number of reporters present will be broadly proportional to the public interest in its topic. However, there are huge number of events that aren't automatically included in some official register, and that's where having a reporter on the ground is vitally important to the quality of the journalism. I don't know if you consider that basic news or not; personally, I do. I would say that the major newspapers must move back to that model, in which journalists conduct their own interviews and reporters take their own photographs, to survive. They must produce value, and there's nothing more valuable in reporting than the 'scoop'.

tdb7893 2y ago

The thing I am happy to pay for is investigative journalism. I've been very happy to donate to Pro Publica

eli_gottlieb 2y ago

>I don't want to pay for basic news. It's a commodity. A commodity is something you pay for! No snark, it's one thing to suggest that we pay wholesale or in bulk-retail for news, another thing to suggest that a commodity can be free.

hinkley 2y ago

In the old days the price of the FCC granting you a license for a TV channel was that you were obliged to provide news as a public service. It was an obligation yes but also a responsibility, and that brought a note of sobriety. When stations instead started trying to make news profitable is where public discourse went to die.

pj_mukh 2y ago

I like the Atlantic, New York Times Magazine, New Yorker etc., but I like like 30-40% of all of em, so, what should I subscribe too? I guess an aggregator like Apple News+ ?

ameister14 2y ago

I think there are some specialized places I'm willing to pay for deeper analysis. Some parts of Bloomberg are good for that; for example Matt Levine writes on financial and legal issues there and is excellent.

seabass-labrax 2y ago

Basic news is a commodity when it is reporting on already-public records, e.g. Hansard or the Congressional Record. For reporting on organized events such as press conferences, it is mostly a commodity as the number of reporters present will be broadly proportional to the public interest in its topic. However, there are huge number of events that aren't automatically included in some official register, and that's where having a reporter on the ground is vitally important to the quality of the journalism. I don't know if you consider that basic news or not; personally, I do. I would say that the major newspapers must move back to that model, in which journalists conduct their own interviews and reporters take their own photographs, to survive. They must produce value, and there's nothing more valuable in reporting than the 'scoop'.