3 ms·

News sites aren't just providing information: they're trading reporting for ad impressions.

by ethbr1 2y ago

tmtvl 2y ago
Serious question: are paywalled news articles better at outlinking and do they have no ads?
- nemomarx 2y ago
  in my experience of i pay a sub it removes ads from the site at least, although not sponsored content
- 2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
  NYT will often outlink or if they're talking about a report, will provide a PDF of the report. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-case-jack-smith-evidence.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-c...
- mrandish 2y ago
  No, not in my experience. They usually have less external ads but a lot of other cruft is still there. Enshittification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification) is getting so bad, I'd be willing to pay for sites that actually work. So far, paywall offers are just to remove external ads and that's only part of what I want. The rest of what I want is for the fucking site to actually work. For example, both Google and Amazon search have been seriously degraded and de-featured in recent years and it's been done very intentionally and systematically to optimize for their ad or sales revenue. I suspect this degradation has crept deeper into their stacks than just at the top layer where it could be easily turned off with a flag and sold as a paywall upgrade.
- nnf 2y ago
  The Atlantic seems to have no problem linking to multiple outside sources in seemingly every article I read.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    The Financial Times is also good about this.
    - 8bitsrule 2y ago
      Lately I think I've been seeing more science news sites linking to source articles, with DOIs usually abstracts-only are viewable) and Arxiv (often with PDFs) for example..
    - hammock 2y ago
      Every FT article is paywalled
      - hnben 2y ago
        iirc they are soft-walled, or at least they were the last time i checked, about a year ago. I forgot how exactly you could bypass the wall, i think something with cookies and private browsing, and ip-addresses.
        disgruntledphd2 2y ago
        Or you could just pay for it. It's expensive but totally worth it (IME, obviously).
  - hammock 2y ago
    The Atlantic is bankrolled by Steve Jobs wife and historically is more of a “think tank” outlet than a journalistic enterprise
safety1st 2y ago
It's a stretch to call many many of the stories these sites produce "reporting," I'm thinking in particular about the "Someone posted to Twitter and other people posted angrily to Twitter in response" genre

News sites aren't just providing information: they're trading reporting for ad impressions.

by ethbr1 2y ago

News sites aren't just providing information: they're trading reporting for ad impressions.

tmtvl 2y ago

Serious question: are paywalled news articles better at outlinking and do they have no ads?

nemomarx 2y ago
in my experience of i pay a sub it removes ads from the site at least, although not sponsored content
2OEH8eoCRo0 2y ago
NYT will often outlink or if they're talking about a report, will provide a PDF of the report. Example: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-case-jack-smith-evidence.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/02/us/politics/trump-jan-6-c...
mrandish 2y ago
No, not in my experience. They usually have less external ads but a lot of other cruft is still there. Enshittification (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enshittification) is getting so bad, I'd be willing to pay for sites that actually work. So far, paywall offers are just to remove external ads and that's only part of what I want. The rest of what I want is for the fucking site to actually work. For example, both Google and Amazon search have been seriously degraded and de-featured in recent years and it's been done very intentionally and systematically to optimize for their ad or sales revenue. I suspect this degradation has crept deeper into their stacks than just at the top layer where it could be easily turned off with a flag and sold as a paywall upgrade.
nnf 2y ago
The Atlantic seems to have no problem linking to multiple outside sources in seemingly every article I read.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  The Financial Times is also good about this.
  - 8bitsrule 2y ago
    Lately I think I've been seeing more science news sites linking to source articles, with DOIs usually abstracts-only are viewable) and Arxiv (often with PDFs) for example..
  - hammock 2y ago
    Every FT article is paywalled
    - hnben 2y ago
      iirc they are soft-walled, or at least they were the last time i checked, about a year ago. I forgot how exactly you could bypass the wall, i think something with cookies and private browsing, and ip-addresses.
      - disgruntledphd2 2y ago
        Or you could just pay for it. It's expensive but totally worth it (IME, obviously).
- hammock 2y ago
  The Atlantic is bankrolled by Steve Jobs wife and historically is more of a “think tank” outlet than a journalistic enterprise

safety1st 2y ago

It's a stretch to call many many of the stories these sites produce "reporting," I'm thinking in particular about the "Someone posted to Twitter and other people posted angrily to Twitter in response" genre