Isn’t there a contradiction between the constant complaining about paywalls by the HN crowd and the same crowd’s dislike of ad driven platforms? Someone wrote this - don’t they need to get paid for it?
Currently, the market seems more keen on ads.
Personally, I'd be happy to pay for investigative journalism (e.g. https://www.buzzfeednews.com/investigations)... but not the kind of journalism which cites "tweets" as research and doesn't think enough of its journalists to give them a byline.