[riffic]

Your local library probably provides content for free if they subscribe to news services, paid for with your tax dollars. Paywalls are just a tax on those too stupid to go to one.

Newspapers never made their money from subscriptions or from selling papers on the street. What kept newspapers in business was classified ads, which was disrupted as a revenue stream when Craigslist came around.

[waqf]

I think you mean that paywalls are rent-seeking on those who lack time (or some other resource) to go to a public library.

[riffic]

That's a much better way to phrase this idea, thank you.