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Comment by zerooneinfinity | Hacker News Reader

Can't read due to paywall. Just curious, do people actually subscribe to WSJ or other paywall sites?

It's interesting, I assume many on here could afford to pay for WSJ, but don't, because the WSJ makes up only a small percentage of the content they want to read.

The answer seems obvious - the industry needs an unlimited Spotify model that has the vast majority of content providers, and then pays out to the content providers by total minutes read. Why this hasn't happened yet is very interesting to me.

The existing model for journalism seems to be similiar to if there was a Spotify type service for each record label - and you had to subscribe to 10 labels to listen to the music you wanted to listen to. This model made sense when there was a marginal cost (printing and delivering) - but that cost is basically gone for online readers.

I love good journalism from the WSJ, NYTimes, WashPost, and many others. But no way am I going to subscribe to all of them - even though I want all of the content. Micropayments seem like way too much friction, and a decision (is this article worth it?) that is such a pain for consumers. Why can't they switch to the Spotify model?

I use https://blendle.com, which is similar to what you describe. It really has diversified the number of sources I read.

Does any share of Blendle go to the content providers, or is it exclusively delivered to Blendle along?

Is that a micropayment model though? I can't imagine wanting to be bothered by paying for everything I read. For some reason, paying for stuff, even if only 25c, makes me think "Is it worth it?", and I hate that feeling.

Totally agree. I would pay 50 cents per month, but I don't want to manage 50 different 50 cent subscriptions.

I actually do subscribe to the WSJ. You don't break stories like the Theranos sham with Buzzfeed style clickbait. Some things are worth paying for

I find this humorous because Buzzfeed, as weird as it is, did a great job breaking the story with their investigations into Zenefits, e.g. https://www.buzzfeed.com/williamalden/how-zenefits-big-bet-o...

Yes. I get the WSJ paper and online. They generally have deals (right now it's $1/week). The charts and data tables in the paper are probably the closest thing you can get to a business dashboard for the whole world. Fun to read each day to get a sense for everything from tech company valuations to the price of pork. Plus it's fun to have fresh reading material not on a screen. For $1 a week, one of the purchases I get the most value out of. I find it 10-100x more informative than any of the other papers, but I'm numbers oriented and others mileage may vary.

They generally have deals (right now it's $1/week).

I used to subscribe back about 15 years ago when they first started charging. But I don't subscribe any more.

The problem is the bait-and-switch. The intro price eventually goes away. Right now a 1 yr subscription, digital only, is $174. But right next to it on the website there's a bubble that says "over 50% off". So the non-discounted price is $350/yr? More?

I get tired of shit like that. Charge me $50/yr and I'll pay. Keep jacking up my price and make me scrounge for discounts and I'll pass. Homie don't play dat!

Click "web".

I subscribe mostly for the physical paper. I rarely read it online, but it comes in handy for times like this. I think my most recent renewal was $100 for the year. Very small price to pay for top quality writing and news. I'd pay for the NYT as well if they actually delivered to my home.

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