On the HN I read, there is a nearly constant stream of ShowHN posts with paid services and promotions of Y-Combinator startups who stand to gain from the exposure. It has always been part of HN culture to promote our projects -- particularly accepted if you are a major contributor and didn't just register to post.

For someone who stands to make a lot of money from acting on the information here, I am happy to pay for it.

Frankly, if it were free, I probably wouldn't bother to watch it -- I already do a lot of email dripping -- free, to me, would mean that it's basic, and that I wouldn't benefit from it.