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Comment by johnfn | Hacker News Reader

You've confused my argument. I'm not trying to be rude, but maybe you should read it again? Let me see if I can explain it better.

First, the fact that people refuse to pay for journalism online is very truly killing journalism online. There was nothing hyperbolic about what I said in GP, and there's nothing hyperbolic about this statement now. This is, I think, indisputable.

What I'm arguing is that people pervasively and stubbornly refuse to pay for things online, but then then turn around and say "content creators should solve the problem that I don't want to pay for things online." It doesn't cross their mind that this is a massive problem that is crushing entire industries, and Joe "I have an online indie band" Schmoe might not be able to reconcile it himself.

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If the reputable publishers banded together and created a single platform that I paid for, where my payment was weighted towards the sites that I actually read articles from, then maybe they wouldn't be in so much trouble. Instead they each create their own platform and ask for a price that simply doesn't represent the value they provide, then bitch that nobody's taking them up on the offer.

Spotify works because they have large enough catalogues that I don't need to also have an Apple Music and a Google Play Music subscription, whereas the New York Times is basically just a donation since I'm inevitably going to have to go elsewhere for other journalism even in the same categories as they report on.

For the case of video, Disney + co have been attacking consumer rights for nearly a century via lobbying and as a result I don't care if they all go out of business. Fuck them for making copyright the 70+ year joke it is today.

There's lots of 'Joe Schmoe' indie musicians on YouTube who successfully monetize via Patreon, Bandcamp, Kickstarter, Indiegogo, and video game soundtracks. Sure, few or none of them are seeing the success of somebody like Beyonce or Justin Bieber, but if that's your standard then you'll have a hard time convincing anybody.

As for journalism, others have made most of the points about its many problems. I just want to add that I'd like to see a major effort towards non-profit investigative journalism. It's pretty clear now that journalism is a commons so it's high time we treated it like one and worked to manage it the way we manage clean drinking water or wilderness preserves.

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