I constantly encounter stories I would like to read on local news sites, but find I'm not often eager to cough up a $10 subscription or whatever just to read that one story.
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I constantly encounter stories I would like to read on local news sites, but find I'm not often eager to cough up a $10 subscription or whatever just to read that one story. And I suspect a lot of other people feel the same way.
But what if I could subscribe to a service that works exclusively with local newspapers and websites to let me buy a certain number of credits or maybe a monthly/yearly pass to read stories at random news sites. Like an Eagle Pass that gets me into all the parks for the year. That way, the publications would get more revenue from people who would otherwise try to find the news for free somewhere else, and readers we really, really want to keep/capture aren't turned away.
Just as importantly, people who want to have an opportunity to support a broad spectrum of local news gathering across the nation can do just that.
Maybe this has been tried and failed before, but it seems like something along these lines is needed if we want to stop local news pubs from circling the drain or being bought by Musk or Bezos or Murdoch or the Tech Bros.
Thoughts? I'm really curious if this has been attempted, if it has succeeded/failed anwwhere, and why.
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@briankrebs Something like what United Press International (UPI) or the Associated Press (AP) used to do.? Collect and distribute articles from many sources? Except now they would need a variety of outlets.
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@UncleCharlieA No, it can't be anything that tries to mess with editorial control over content. That's kind of a non-starter for most pubs.
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The Dutch company Blendle is doing exactly that: one subscription to read articles in hundreds of magazines.
However, they stopped the US service.
https://www.blendle.support/hc/en-us/articles/4404282186769-What-is-Blendle
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@paulschoe @briankrebs archive.is is doing that as well, without the subscriptions. The subscription model does not work, precisely for the reason OP mentioned
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@briankrebs The W3C Web Payments Working Group has been around for 20 years and we still don't have a standard for microtransactions. Your browser should have an easy way for you to authorize sites to charge up to $.xx for access to an article.
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I have the impression that the OP is willing to pay for articles but does not want to pay for dozens of local sites that he only visits once in his lifetime.
I use archive.ph for such situations, but with archive.ph I feel that I am stealing from the authors.
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@paulschoe @pl Right. Conscience tugs at your wallet. I confess I do the same for stories that I need to read right away for reporting reasons, but I'd rather have the option to pay for it, if it's not unreasonable.
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Katrina Katrinka :donor:replied to BrianKrebs last edited by
@briankrebs
If you're interested in #Utah and #SLC local news, @sltrib, our nonprofit local paper is raising funds to become free online to all. Please repost to spread the word.https://www.sltrib.com/news/2024/11/22/salt-lake-tribune-makes-plans-free/
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Katrina Katrinka :donor:replied to BrianKrebs last edited by
@briankrebs
I'll also add this, if you're not familiar with it.The #EconomicHardshipJournalismProject funds good, investigative journalism about inequality in the US and abroad. They fund some good local journalism on underreported issues.
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I feel like this could be a dangerous idea of unnecessary centralization, which creates another institution with too much power.
I see the appeal but feel that is the wrong approach.
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@briankrebs Indiegraf (https://indiegraf.com/) sort of has that model, in that they provide a set of shared services to a variety of small local news organizations. I know it's possible to buy advertising on their network across multiple publishers (if the advertiser wants to be geographically diverse), and, while I haven't seen it done yet, I suspect they could do some sort of group subscription if there was demand for it.
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An annonymous tip jar via some kind of micro-cryptocurrency is the model I keep thinking about.
Put a nickle in the juke box.
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@briankrebs sadly no, and it makes no sense because Alden Capital owns most of the major US chains.
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@briankrebs I remember (or could be just making stuff up) about 15 years ago, there was some buzz about “micropayment" systems for just this kind of thing... want to read this article?-- click here to pay for it. I'm the same... and I'd love to read the occasional article in some of the American sites, but my experience trying to cancel some of those subscriptions recently has been painful.
