It very well could be that he opposes The Atlantic’s practices and is using this op-ed to speak out against it.
I agree with the sentiment, but I’m not sure how to make it work. Journalists need to make a living, but if it’s distributed free, where’s that money going to come from?
damn if only we could subsidize journalism instead of oil and meat
oh well i guess
We could but that brings its own moral issues. Can you trust a journalist to be truthful and critical of a government that signs their paycheque?
with sufficient legislation, sure. Do you inherently distrust NPR?
The thing for me is that there are too many (essentially all) news portals, who are doing this individually which brings the reader into the conflict of “what should I pay for?”. Hands down, I’m not consuming one news paper and that’s it. In Germany here, I’ve got about 5 which immediately come to my mind and then some more internationally. Every portal wants 3-5 euro/dollar/whatever from me per month, which is not manageable.
What we need - in my opinion - is the possibility for a specific subscription bundle. I’d be happy to pay for my news for a manageable amount and payment. Let it be 15 euro per month for x free to chose papers and I won’t even think twice, because yes! These guys need to be paid too and I’d love to give them their deserved payment.
But this situation we’ve got here? All over the world? No wonder, online archives are thriving.
I feel like the people most affected by paywalls, i.e. people who read their news, are already pretty well informed.
There’s plenty of access to quality journalism, more than ever, the problem is that no amount of quality or availability can compete with misinformation tailored to addict, comfort, and flatter it’s audience. You can’t inform people against their will.