If you have been click-baited into a juicy article, you probably were not allowed to cross the border. You get a sneak peak but after the news tasting you have to pay!
Free loaders like me get frustrated when we have to pay! There is no real paper being sent home to me so why are you charging me right?
Warren Buffett concurs that Newspapers will be out of Business because they are in the Ad Business not the “News” Business. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-23/warren-buffett-sees-most-newspapers-as-toast-after-ad-decline
Historically
Principled Journalism → Eyeballs → Ads → Sustainability
Recent Past
Seek Attention(By scaring the shit out of people or inducing hatred) → Dilated-Pupils → Ads → Slow Death!
Future?
Eyeballs → iBalls i.e All eyes on IPhones
Historically, newspaper meant eye balls. Eye balls meant Ads. It was all good until you made money to run the business. But the world is not enough!
Power »> Money!
Why just make money when you can control the minds of your readers. This started the Propaganda factory.
It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently. ~ Warren Buffett
Hey! But you can do more than Ads right like shoving down your opinions down people’s throats. This leads to hit job articles and paid journalism. But now the eyeballs are distracted and spread too thin. Social Media has taken the pie and has run far away with it. Now you start questioning all the things you believed were they actually true or just planted? Social Media has the added advantage of transparent feedback on editorials, a slap on the face then and there. I wonder how many Oped comments were trashed and never acknowledged.
Will building the paywall bring back Newspapers to its former glory?
Growing up, like most nerdy kids, I couldn’t wait for the newspaper every morning. I could go to school feeling enlightened and sense of at-least I did one right today in the morning. Now, all I feel is betrayal, how naive I was and the stench of the soap from being brainwashed.
I am being charged significantly less than what I would have to pay for a daily physical paper. But all I see now is the propaganda behind most news articles, even if there isn’t one! Every article however convincing I have this mistrust where I keep questioning; who would benefit from this and why?
Newspapers were in control of how we thought, what products we bought and who we voted for.
If you dig a little deeper on the author, you usually end up finding
- The reporter might get directly paid in cash or advertisements
- The reporter might already from the same school of thought
- The reporter is part of the “Non-Profit” funding propaganda through press
Because of the hit job articles against popular personalities, selling souls to propaganda and manipulation of readers for corporate cash. After losing credibility, journalism needs to stick to its roots i.e reporting! Reporting facts and not opinions.
The reason I read & paid for news is I can’t be in a million places so I outsource that job to you. But if you try to control what and how I should think that’s where the buck stops!
Now paying for a newspaper won’t work. The reason is simple. Trust! I just don’t trust newspaper to do fair “reporting of facts”. They are trying to enrage me and put me into a disturbed state constantly seeking attention. https://twitter.com/jposhaughnessy/status/1128005777048911872
Newspapers have ruined facts forever! The newspapers cried wolf but villagers are the ones who got eaten here
By losing trust in Newspapers, people don’t know what or whom to trust anymore. After the wolf ate every villager, now Social Media fake news is prying on their souls.
Loss of Eyeballs, Mindshare & Revenue
So paywall is supposed to build loyalty and readers won’t lurk around other newspapers. We used to have cults oh you are the times readers or your family reads that paper etc. Not anymore.
How can Newspapers survive?
Go back to the basics.
- Report Facts! Leave the opinions to users.
- Make room for positive news
- When you complain about a problem, propose a solution to the problem. Don’t just make people sad show them the light.
- And of course, charge what it is worth for!