Hacker News Reader

Comment by Eyas | Hacker News Reader

> News outlets existed before the web, so they're not going to be threatened by breaking the ad-supported website model. If anything, the traditional newspapers will be saved by this, because if free online news disappears, people will start buying newspaper subscriptions again.

We're also seeing very concerning trends in the readerships and profitability of print media (because of the Web, many think). So I don't think you can use the "News outlets existed before the web" line, without much more justification.

View on HN

I do not think it is bad, I think that is evolution. Ads only content is total crap. We have to teach people to pay for content. Second part is we have to teach publishers not to be greedy. Just like iTunes with music, easy small payments, not subscribtions no one wants. Maybe they could make actually some use of crypto currencies but there would have to be strong player like apple to press for consensus. Otherwise each one would like to have its own payment system and charge others for using it.

> Maybe they could make actually some use of crypto currencies but there would have to be strong player like apple to press for consensus.

I doubt it. Cryptocurrencies seem to be terrible for micropayments.

That's my point. Get rid of the free “news" sites and people will start paying for print media (and digital subscriptions) again.

Print news media was dying for decades before online media came online, and was almost entirely paid for by ads (many local publications were and are free of charge, and many of the paid ones charged primarily to have paid circulation numbers and shape the socioeconomic demographics of their audience, both of which were and are mechanisms to boost advertising revenue.)

> Print news media was dying for decades before online media came online

Any sources for this? I don't think this was the case at all at least in my part of Europe.

It may not have been the case in Europe; the decline in circulation in the print media in the US was widely discussed as long trend in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and attributed to a number of factors, most notably (but not exclusively) the wave of mergers and associated cuts in local newsrooms and non-wire-service content in the preceding couple of decades.

>We're also seeing very concerning trends in the readerships and profitability of print media

Why is it "very concerning" (assuming no financial interests) that a legacy form of media is struggly to dominate in terms of profitability?

It's concerning in relation to the gp's post. Online media is having existential problems. The gp's response to this (in part) is that we have had print media for a while. My response is that it is unclear we'll have print media for much longer, so we should still be concerned about online media (otherwise we might end up with no media).

Reply on news.ycombinator.com