This thread looks to have fallen off front page, fair enough I suppose as it doesn't gratify any sort of intellectual curiosity...

For those who are still here: do any of you pay for news? If so can you share your criteria for how you determine which outlets are appropriate to support directly?

How can I ensure the news I read (or pay for) is not involved in contracting with censorial organizations like GDI?

The GDI appears to be an organisation seeking to root out disinformation with data-driven studies that compare News outlets in different countries. They then make an index/score from this that can be updated periodically. Seems pretty sensible in this day and age as long as they do so transparently.

Obviously UnHerd can and should defend themselves from this, very sensible of them to do so. I wouldn't want to take them at face value though.

It does appear that they do defend right wing conspiracies according to their 'notable stories' section on Wikipedia, including the COVID lab leak theory, anti-trans crap, and pro-Russia propagandists.