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Lots of news websites seem to think they can't function without tracking readers. I wonder how they got by when street corner newsstand were the only way to get views.

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I wonder how they got by when street corner newsstand were the only way to get views.

They got by because people paid them money to buy the newspaper.

How about the free newspapers in the underground? They serve ads but don’t track you.

Not really, newspapers made most of their money from advertising. You still see people handing out free newspapers in cities, but the advertising is worth more when someone pays for the paper as it’s assumed someone is going to read it vs using it as a free stack of paper.

EX: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Express_(Washington,_D.C._ne...

Well here's the fantastic thing about newspapers and newspaper websites - you have the option of not buying them, and not visiting them. It's much nicer for the rest of us if you exercise those rights rather than complaining.

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