by Tdarcos » Tue Jun 18, 2019 1:03 pm
My tablet supports FM radio with a wired earphone plugged in. As it turns out I stumbled upon noted blowhard and hypocrite[*] Rush Limbaugh.
It was in the middle of his story, but what he was talking about were apps or websites that expect you to pay for a monthly subscription and some have different subscription levels. Then he pointed out this is the way newspapers are attempting to make money off their content since on-line advertising has dried up: 80% of all ad revenue goes to just two sources: Google and Facebook.
Originally newspapers gave away their content and used advertising to subsidize the price of the paper. They can't do that anymore except small newspapers can't use an on-line subscription method. Not many people are willing to pay for the Rochester, NY Democrat and Chronicle or the Sacramento Bee. Further, if you try to establish a pay site and your competitors don't, you ain't gonna get many takers.
But you have a problem when there are too many sites wanting paid subscriptions, whether they are 99c a month or $9.99, you can only have so many sites demanding payment before it gets to be too many, and you have "subscription fatigue."
Beyond that, CNN alone gives away a lot of news on their website; they make up the losses from other sources. This does not bode well for some newspapers trying to make a living.
One thing Limbaugh failed to mention is this threatens news coverage of important stories in small towns. Many important stories of public malfeasance and corruption only came out because the local paper could do so. The Washington Post's current slogan has it spot-on right: Democracy dies in darkness.
[*] When Limbaugh was having troubles with pain, he arranged to get extra prescriptions from multiple doctors for pain medications, a practice known as "drug seeking," an activity which, fortunately for him isn't illegal. However, he had savagely criticized this behavior in the past, and never admitted after his behavior became public, that he was wrong.
My tablet supports FM radio with a wired earphone plugged in. As it turns out I stumbled upon noted blowhard and hypocrite[*] Rush Limbaugh.
It was in the middle of his story, but what he was talking about were apps or websites that expect you to pay for a monthly subscription and some have different subscription levels. Then he pointed out this is the way newspapers are attempting to make money off their content since on-line advertising has dried up: 80% of all ad revenue goes to just two sources: Google and Facebook.
Originally newspapers gave away their content and used advertising to subsidize the price of the paper. They can't do that anymore [i]except[/i] small newspapers can't use an on-line subscription method. Not many people are willing to pay for the Rochester, NY [i]Democrat and Chronicle[/i] or the [i]Sacramento Bee[/i]. Further, if you try to establish a pay site and your competitors don't, you ain't gonna get many takers.
But you have a problem when there are too many sites wanting paid subscriptions, whether they are 99c a month or $9.99, you can only have so many sites demanding payment before it gets to be too many, and you have "subscription fatigue."
Beyond that, CNN alone gives away a lot of news on their website; they make up the losses from other sources. This does not bode well for some newspapers trying to make a living.
One thing Limbaugh failed to mention is this threatens news coverage of important stories in small towns. Many important stories of public malfeasance and corruption only came out because the local paper could do so. [i]The Washington Post[/i]'s current slogan has it spot-on right: [i]Democracy dies in darkness[/i].
[*] When Limbaugh was having troubles with pain, he arranged to get extra prescriptions from multiple doctors for pain medications, a practice known as "drug seeking," an activity which, fortunately for him isn't illegal. However, he had savagely criticized this behavior in the past, and never admitted after his behavior became public, that he was wrong.