When I click on a link in an article and run into a paywall, I’m one of those who doesn’t pay. Here’s why: I already pay for the news services I want to read daily, or weekly. I don’t want to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal just to read one article in it. But I agree that news services can and must be paid for their work. Why can’t they make the person POSTING the link pay? They’re the ones initiating use of someone else’s work. Technology should be capable of having THEM be charged some fraction of a dollar every time someone clicks on the link they’ve provided. No different than the way you have to pay to use someone’s song or play someone’s movie.
Some news outfits allow subscribers to “gift” some number of stories every month.
It used to be that many, if not most people subscribed to a local paper which in turn carried news briefs from the AP or other service that allowed stories to be shared. And when daily print papers were a thing most diners would have a house copy that customers could read as a little bonus service.
I think there should be an AP-like internet service that would bundle regional and national news organizations and for a small extra fee on top of your subscription to your local paper you would get some number of views of stories per month among the network you belonged to.
Many papers offer a teaser $1 per month subscription rate so if a consortium could deliver thousands of extra views through a subscriber to a different paper paying maybe and extra $5/month it could be a win-win for subscribers and for local papers.
I’ve suggested it to some news-type people, but they don’t seem to get entrepreneurialism.
It seems the ultimate solution is micro-payments - the cost of a daily newspaper $2 - that can be done easily without digging out your credit cards. But so far, that solution has been elusive. I'd be happy to pay $1 for a story I really want to read, but I don't want a subscription.
One option for reading a wide variety of both local and national news is Apple News+. May not be for everyone, but it does have its advantages.
It has over 130 local newspapers, including the Albany Times Union, as well as national ones like The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. In addition, it has national magazines like The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and many others. Plus, it has RSS feeds for articles from sources like Reuters, Politico, and USAToday.
Monthly subscription of $12.99.
Advantages: Numerous newspaper (and arts and cultural) sources in an easily-readable format for a single monthly subscription that’s not much more than the cost of subscribing to a single newspaper or magazine. Can unsubscribe at any time — no contract..
Disadvantages: it does require a subscription, as well as an Apple computer, iPad, or iPhone.
Apple News also has a free version that provides a more limited number of articles, but shows the ones that you could be reading if you upgraded to Apple News+. They have the biggest stories of the day and a smattering of other various articles for free.
Given the fear mongering and Gestapo like tactics that Trump continues to use, I suspect Bove will still get approved. Privatize the Post Office? Good luck with that one. We are at a major tipping point as we come up to the 250th birthday of Democracy and I'm waiting with baited breath this morning to hear the SCOTUS final decisions, but I'm not optimistic. I also suspect the Big Beautiful Bill (which hasn't even been finalized in writing) will pass in the coming week. I just hope that ALL the MAGA Morons who voted for Trump get the full impact of the cost cutting of their Medicaid (and many other benefits especially VA if you are a veteran and voted for him), the closing of the rural health care systems, and understand the full costs of the absurd tariffs and tax breaks for billionaires. If you live in rural Oklahoma or Mississippi and you or family members fall below the poverty line, or become seriously ill, or even die because you've been denied access to things you once had before the BBB, just remember, "you got what you voted for" so STFU! Your own ignorance did you in (and sadly many other Americans). If you are an immigrant who became a naturalized MAGA citizen but have now been rounded up by ICE, I hope you get deported. That's my 2 cents. Ignorance has a price, and now it's time to pay up.
The fact that most people get their news from Facebook and are unwilling to pay for subscriptions is really disturbing. Especially considering how willing many people are to subscribe to multiple streaming services every month. People are so checked out of factual info on current events.
I do pay for news, from several different places. But there are always articles from different sources that I can't access because of pay walls. I wish news sites would offer a pay per article option. Or some type of reciprocal agreement like many museums have on a higher membership tier. I'd gladly pay for that, but I don't want to be paying 20 different subscriptions to news sites each month just so I can read the odd article I'm interested in. I hope news media can get this figured out.
News organizations don’t seem to understand that they can provide many multiples in value to their customers through an agreement that might cost customers pennies/month. More value makes subscriptions more desireable!
I’m sorry I missed the opportunity to stand with postal workers. I think most people have a story, or many stories of how effective the post office was before DeJoy, and postal carriers who provided service above and beyond. I could not have run my own business for the last 30 years without USPS. For pocket change they will deliver the ACTUAL envelope anywhere in the country so when a customer from Utah asks if we take a credit card we say, “no, just drop a check in the mail.” It costs them less than a dollar, and it saves us 3-4% on the sale. We almost never had a problem before DeJoy took over but now misdeliveries are more common.
We use or have used most other private services, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and freight trucking. They all have uses, but the cost of those services has gotten much more expensive than they used to be.
Privatization of USPS is a strategy to suck more $$ from our pockets.
The heart of the problem isn’t that people don’t want to pay, it’s that news access has expanded to include every link you come across (all asking for subscription money) on the internet- the access to which you’re already paying for a subscription. Where exposure to different news sources used to be limited to the magazine and newspaper selection on occasional visits to the doctors office, barbershop and 3 major network news television shows, now the exposure is exponential because of the internet and social media.
Presented with so many choices, all seeking subscription dollars on top of monthly internet costs, most people unsurprisingly simply don’t subscribe. Or they are turned off by the annoying pop up ads that interrupt any reasonable reading flow.
The formerly successful financial model of paid subscriptions to one major national paper and maybe a weekly and a monthly magazine and a local weekly (or even daily) of some fashion is gone with the wind. It’s definitely a new era of news access with almost infinite choice, and consumers reading occasionally from myriad sources and a few favorites, including non-serious social media ‘news’.
But the pay models offered to consumers has not evolved with these changes. Maybe an affordable fee tacked on to your internet bill that gives you access to X number of news outlets- local, national and international- could work? It’s surprising that news outlets haven’t figured out a more creative and affordable way to get paid for their valuable work. Certainly our democracy depends on it.
Well like any other organization that seeks donations or payment for service, i personally would like to contribute but I do not do to the fact that every time I do contribute something.I am inundated with requests for further contributions!
With today's economy being so uncertain, I cannot contribute as much as I would like to.... Also I consider the fact that the news nowadays is so damn discouraging that we don't want to go out of our way to read it but I do love your column in particular... I hope you can keep it coming even though I do not pay for it!
It is good to see that several DOJ attorneys have spoken out and resigned in protest as to the current direction that DOJ has taken and that it's making the headlines.
There are probably many other career Federal Government employees who are keeping notes and compiling evidence as they are experiencing the same type of corruption and rogue behaviors of Trump appointees and loyalists who are now running their respective agencies.
However, fear of retribution and being threatened with prosecution if they speak out are keeping them silenced. Their revelations will not make the headlines, because it won't be quite as dramatic, It might be abuse of official positions and capacities, misuse of government equipment, like vehicles or planes, or other types of "mundane" corruption.
Also, unlike DOJ attorneys, many, if not most, of these career employees will not be approached by firms for employment, or a book or movie deal, or to be a "consultant" on a cable news network, or are able to open their own practices or businesses. They are just keeping their heads down waiting till the end of the Trump era or waiting for the day they can retire.
Hopefully, if Democrats do regain control of Congress in 2026, some of these career employees will feel more secure and will come forward to expose more of the corrosion and corruption of Trump appointees and his loyalists are doing within our government.
Re the Salem Saturday morning vigils for democracy, the "unofficial" organizers attended the Town Board Meeting, assimilated the comments and posted this on their Facebook page, 4Corners4Democracy, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1161881299077085
We look forward to seeing you all on Salem's 4Corners Saturday, June 28 at 10 a.m.
With that said, we need to note that Main Street businesses have complained--in Salem's most recently regularly scheduled Town Board meeting--that our Saturday vigils are hurting their businesses.
Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts not to park in front of their stores. . We will have "parking monitors" working to ensure that parking spaces are saved for Main Street business customers. Please cooperate with their efforts.
There are many off-Main Street parking options: the school, church parking lots, the public lot behind the gazebo, side streets, parallel streets and so on.
Ever before us is the First Amendment's guarantee of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble," a right that should be imperatively exercised now more than ever.
On the other hand, we want to extend the collegiality we have experienced in protest to our Salem neighbors.
At the Town Board meeting, as an expression of goodwill, we formed an ad hoc committee to explore alternatives to our Saturday morning gatherings. Please react/express your preferences in the comments section.
1. Keep our rescheduled Saturday vigils, with strict parking enforcement..
2. Switch to 10 a.m. Sunday.
3. Move the location to the grassy area in front of the cemetery immediately south of the "commercial" area of town.
4. Join Greenwich's 11:30 protest (i.e., end the Salem protests).
We all have to make choices about what we subscribe to. My money goes to the TU, WAPO (so far, anyway), the Atlantic, and two Substack newsletters. So no, I don’t, and can’t, subscribe every time a paywall blocks me from something I’d like to read.
I hope that is the greater lesson. That you are paying for news in some form and supporting those local entities. I subscribe to T-U, NYT, Atlantic, Times-Picayune, Post-Star and Heather Cox Richardson on substack. I've made numerous contributions to journalism organizations like ProPublica, Mississippi Today and others that are non-profits.
As a Vietnam era veteran and member of Veterans For Peace, I believe that this administration's true goals for the Post Office, are to be able to intercept and "lose", mail-in voting ballots from unfriendly Zip Codes, and to further gather information on citizens, to be used against them should they dissent in the future, from the "agenda" (dictatorship) of the party in power. I am praying that I am wrong.
And with ICE eliminating potential walk-in and mail-in votes of legal citizens being snatched up and put into human warehouses, without a chance to prove their citizenship, thus regime may very well try to “lose” military absentee ballots.
The Post Star sent an email today announcing we will be charged an additional $7.99/month, starting now, to compensate for operational expenses, tariffs etc. and that our annual subscriptions will be ending sooner because of these deductions…💸
During my long-ago media career, we called whistleblowers sources, and there were no laws to protect them, the sources had to rely on reporters' promises of confidentiality. There were many instances when the offender would blurt out names to us, but a good reporter learned how to keep their poker face. That ability to groom and maintain sources seems to be a lost art in today's media and government (at all levels) climate. But the best defense against the critics, insults, lawsuits, verbal/physical threats, etc.. remains the truth and facts.
Do not privatize to US Post Office.
Truth!
When I click on a link in an article and run into a paywall, I’m one of those who doesn’t pay. Here’s why: I already pay for the news services I want to read daily, or weekly. I don’t want to subscribe to the Wall Street Journal just to read one article in it. But I agree that news services can and must be paid for their work. Why can’t they make the person POSTING the link pay? They’re the ones initiating use of someone else’s work. Technology should be capable of having THEM be charged some fraction of a dollar every time someone clicks on the link they’ve provided. No different than the way you have to pay to use someone’s song or play someone’s movie.
Some news outfits allow subscribers to “gift” some number of stories every month.
It used to be that many, if not most people subscribed to a local paper which in turn carried news briefs from the AP or other service that allowed stories to be shared. And when daily print papers were a thing most diners would have a house copy that customers could read as a little bonus service.
I think there should be an AP-like internet service that would bundle regional and national news organizations and for a small extra fee on top of your subscription to your local paper you would get some number of views of stories per month among the network you belonged to.
Many papers offer a teaser $1 per month subscription rate so if a consortium could deliver thousands of extra views through a subscriber to a different paper paying maybe and extra $5/month it could be a win-win for subscribers and for local papers.
I’ve suggested it to some news-type people, but they don’t seem to get entrepreneurialism.
It seems the ultimate solution is micro-payments - the cost of a daily newspaper $2 - that can be done easily without digging out your credit cards. But so far, that solution has been elusive. I'd be happy to pay $1 for a story I really want to read, but I don't want a subscription.
One option for reading a wide variety of both local and national news is Apple News+. May not be for everyone, but it does have its advantages.
It has over 130 local newspapers, including the Albany Times Union, as well as national ones like The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, and the Los Angeles Times. In addition, it has national magazines like The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the Smithsonian, National Geographic, and many others. Plus, it has RSS feeds for articles from sources like Reuters, Politico, and USAToday.
Monthly subscription of $12.99.
Advantages: Numerous newspaper (and arts and cultural) sources in an easily-readable format for a single monthly subscription that’s not much more than the cost of subscribing to a single newspaper or magazine. Can unsubscribe at any time — no contract..
Disadvantages: it does require a subscription, as well as an Apple computer, iPad, or iPhone.
Apple News also has a free version that provides a more limited number of articles, but shows the ones that you could be reading if you upgraded to Apple News+. They have the biggest stories of the day and a smattering of other various articles for free.
Given the fear mongering and Gestapo like tactics that Trump continues to use, I suspect Bove will still get approved. Privatize the Post Office? Good luck with that one. We are at a major tipping point as we come up to the 250th birthday of Democracy and I'm waiting with baited breath this morning to hear the SCOTUS final decisions, but I'm not optimistic. I also suspect the Big Beautiful Bill (which hasn't even been finalized in writing) will pass in the coming week. I just hope that ALL the MAGA Morons who voted for Trump get the full impact of the cost cutting of their Medicaid (and many other benefits especially VA if you are a veteran and voted for him), the closing of the rural health care systems, and understand the full costs of the absurd tariffs and tax breaks for billionaires. If you live in rural Oklahoma or Mississippi and you or family members fall below the poverty line, or become seriously ill, or even die because you've been denied access to things you once had before the BBB, just remember, "you got what you voted for" so STFU! Your own ignorance did you in (and sadly many other Americans). If you are an immigrant who became a naturalized MAGA citizen but have now been rounded up by ICE, I hope you get deported. That's my 2 cents. Ignorance has a price, and now it's time to pay up.
The fact that most people get their news from Facebook and are unwilling to pay for subscriptions is really disturbing. Especially considering how willing many people are to subscribe to multiple streaming services every month. People are so checked out of factual info on current events.
I do pay for news, from several different places. But there are always articles from different sources that I can't access because of pay walls. I wish news sites would offer a pay per article option. Or some type of reciprocal agreement like many museums have on a higher membership tier. I'd gladly pay for that, but I don't want to be paying 20 different subscriptions to news sites each month just so I can read the odd article I'm interested in. I hope news media can get this figured out.
Reciprocal agreements!!!!
News organizations don’t seem to understand that they can provide many multiples in value to their customers through an agreement that might cost customers pennies/month. More value makes subscriptions more desireable!
I’m sorry I missed the opportunity to stand with postal workers. I think most people have a story, or many stories of how effective the post office was before DeJoy, and postal carriers who provided service above and beyond. I could not have run my own business for the last 30 years without USPS. For pocket change they will deliver the ACTUAL envelope anywhere in the country so when a customer from Utah asks if we take a credit card we say, “no, just drop a check in the mail.” It costs them less than a dollar, and it saves us 3-4% on the sale. We almost never had a problem before DeJoy took over but now misdeliveries are more common.
We use or have used most other private services, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and freight trucking. They all have uses, but the cost of those services has gotten much more expensive than they used to be.
Privatization of USPS is a strategy to suck more $$ from our pockets.
The heart of the problem isn’t that people don’t want to pay, it’s that news access has expanded to include every link you come across (all asking for subscription money) on the internet- the access to which you’re already paying for a subscription. Where exposure to different news sources used to be limited to the magazine and newspaper selection on occasional visits to the doctors office, barbershop and 3 major network news television shows, now the exposure is exponential because of the internet and social media.
Presented with so many choices, all seeking subscription dollars on top of monthly internet costs, most people unsurprisingly simply don’t subscribe. Or they are turned off by the annoying pop up ads that interrupt any reasonable reading flow.
The formerly successful financial model of paid subscriptions to one major national paper and maybe a weekly and a monthly magazine and a local weekly (or even daily) of some fashion is gone with the wind. It’s definitely a new era of news access with almost infinite choice, and consumers reading occasionally from myriad sources and a few favorites, including non-serious social media ‘news’.
But the pay models offered to consumers has not evolved with these changes. Maybe an affordable fee tacked on to your internet bill that gives you access to X number of news outlets- local, national and international- could work? It’s surprising that news outlets haven’t figured out a more creative and affordable way to get paid for their valuable work. Certainly our democracy depends on it.
Well like any other organization that seeks donations or payment for service, i personally would like to contribute but I do not do to the fact that every time I do contribute something.I am inundated with requests for further contributions!
With today's economy being so uncertain, I cannot contribute as much as I would like to.... Also I consider the fact that the news nowadays is so damn discouraging that we don't want to go out of our way to read it but I do love your column in particular... I hope you can keep it coming even though I do not pay for it!
“By giving us the opinions of the uneducated, journalism keeps us in touch with the ignorance of the community.” - Oscar Wilde
😶
Great quote.
It is good to see that several DOJ attorneys have spoken out and resigned in protest as to the current direction that DOJ has taken and that it's making the headlines.
There are probably many other career Federal Government employees who are keeping notes and compiling evidence as they are experiencing the same type of corruption and rogue behaviors of Trump appointees and loyalists who are now running their respective agencies.
However, fear of retribution and being threatened with prosecution if they speak out are keeping them silenced. Their revelations will not make the headlines, because it won't be quite as dramatic, It might be abuse of official positions and capacities, misuse of government equipment, like vehicles or planes, or other types of "mundane" corruption.
Also, unlike DOJ attorneys, many, if not most, of these career employees will not be approached by firms for employment, or a book or movie deal, or to be a "consultant" on a cable news network, or are able to open their own practices or businesses. They are just keeping their heads down waiting till the end of the Trump era or waiting for the day they can retire.
Hopefully, if Democrats do regain control of Congress in 2026, some of these career employees will feel more secure and will come forward to expose more of the corrosion and corruption of Trump appointees and his loyalists are doing within our government.
Thanks for this morning’s comprehensive edition of The Front Page. “All the news that’s fit to print “ The price—$50/year—is a bargain, too.
Re the Salem Saturday morning vigils for democracy, the "unofficial" organizers attended the Town Board Meeting, assimilated the comments and posted this on their Facebook page, 4Corners4Democracy, https://www.facebook.com/groups/1161881299077085
We look forward to seeing you all on Salem's 4Corners Saturday, June 28 at 10 a.m.
With that said, we need to note that Main Street businesses have complained--in Salem's most recently regularly scheduled Town Board meeting--that our Saturday vigils are hurting their businesses.
Therefore, we need to redouble our efforts not to park in front of their stores. . We will have "parking monitors" working to ensure that parking spaces are saved for Main Street business customers. Please cooperate with their efforts.
There are many off-Main Street parking options: the school, church parking lots, the public lot behind the gazebo, side streets, parallel streets and so on.
Ever before us is the First Amendment's guarantee of "the right of the people peaceably to assemble," a right that should be imperatively exercised now more than ever.
On the other hand, we want to extend the collegiality we have experienced in protest to our Salem neighbors.
At the Town Board meeting, as an expression of goodwill, we formed an ad hoc committee to explore alternatives to our Saturday morning gatherings. Please react/express your preferences in the comments section.
1. Keep our rescheduled Saturday vigils, with strict parking enforcement..
2. Switch to 10 a.m. Sunday.
3. Move the location to the grassy area in front of the cemetery immediately south of the "commercial" area of town.
4. Join Greenwich's 11:30 protest (i.e., end the Salem protests).
Let us be strong and kind. See you Saturday.
Thanks for the update.
We all have to make choices about what we subscribe to. My money goes to the TU, WAPO (so far, anyway), the Atlantic, and two Substack newsletters. So no, I don’t, and can’t, subscribe every time a paywall blocks me from something I’d like to read.
I hope that is the greater lesson. That you are paying for news in some form and supporting those local entities. I subscribe to T-U, NYT, Atlantic, Times-Picayune, Post-Star and Heather Cox Richardson on substack. I've made numerous contributions to journalism organizations like ProPublica, Mississippi Today and others that are non-profits.
As a Vietnam era veteran and member of Veterans For Peace, I believe that this administration's true goals for the Post Office, are to be able to intercept and "lose", mail-in voting ballots from unfriendly Zip Codes, and to further gather information on citizens, to be used against them should they dissent in the future, from the "agenda" (dictatorship) of the party in power. I am praying that I am wrong.
That’s my hunch too…
And with ICE eliminating potential walk-in and mail-in votes of legal citizens being snatched up and put into human warehouses, without a chance to prove their citizenship, thus regime may very well try to “lose” military absentee ballots.
The Post Star sent an email today announcing we will be charged an additional $7.99/month, starting now, to compensate for operational expenses, tariffs etc. and that our annual subscriptions will be ending sooner because of these deductions…💸
During my long-ago media career, we called whistleblowers sources, and there were no laws to protect them, the sources had to rely on reporters' promises of confidentiality. There were many instances when the offender would blurt out names to us, but a good reporter learned how to keep their poker face. That ability to groom and maintain sources seems to be a lost art in today's media and government (at all levels) climate. But the best defense against the critics, insults, lawsuits, verbal/physical threats, etc.. remains the truth and facts.