I think we might get to a system where summaries of news are free, but indepth articles and videos are paid.
Oh and I believe that news sites should scrap subscription only models, I should be able to pay 1-2EUR for a single article that I want to read, with no risk of the payment being a subscription.
Obviously subscriptions models should still be an alternative if the users want it.
I’d happily pay a nominal fee for news that was unbiased reporting of facts rather than opinion, and didn’t bombard me with ads or sell my data. It just doesn’t exist so I use aggregators to get a general vibe across sources.
That’s easy to say, but when it comes to finding my credit card to type in my info for yet another news website, I can guarantee that I just don’t give enough fucks about any individual news story.
I have mine saved in my password manager, but I’d rather they use a different payment processor (where it’s also saved) anyway. I try to avoid giving card info directly to smaller sites.
If a news website that I could trust met my criteria, it wouldn’t be ‘just another’ news site, it’d be my source of truth. So like I said, I would happily pay for that. And I’d pay a lot more than an average subscription.
It’s nigh impossible to get many users to read past the headline. A summary is what 98% of people would actually want (and a good news story really is just a summary anyway) so the pay-through-rate would be so close to zero that I can’t see this model working.
News sites are in need of a paradigm shift.
I think we might get to a system where summaries of news are free, but indepth articles and videos are paid.
Oh and I believe that news sites should scrap subscription only models, I should be able to pay 1-2EUR for a single article that I want to read, with no risk of the payment being a subscription.
Obviously subscriptions models should still be an alternative if the users want it.
I’d happily pay a nominal fee for news that was unbiased reporting of facts rather than opinion, and didn’t bombard me with ads or sell my data. It just doesn’t exist so I use aggregators to get a general vibe across sources.
That’s easy to say, but when it comes to finding my credit card to type in my info for yet another news website, I can guarantee that I just don’t give enough fucks about any individual news story.
I have mine saved in my password manager, but I’d rather they use a different payment processor (where it’s also saved) anyway. I try to avoid giving card info directly to smaller sites.
If a news website that I could trust met my criteria, it wouldn’t be ‘just another’ news site, it’d be my source of truth. So like I said, I would happily pay for that. And I’d pay a lot more than an average subscription.
So, a subscription with extra steps? Or is the problem that you just can’t find any trustworthy sites?
Yes. I’ve never found a news site that meets my criteria
It’s nigh impossible to get many users to read past the headline. A summary is what 98% of people would actually want (and a good news story really is just a summary anyway) so the pay-through-rate would be so close to zero that I can’t see this model working.
That is a fair point, which just makes me wonder what else new services can offer that people will pay for…