[marcus_holmes]

Having run a newspaper, I know the problem is the business model. Funding by advertising is a terrible business model for journalism.

"real" journalism doesn't make any money because it's expensive to make and doesn't generate any more ad revenue than bad journalism.

Most newspapers lose money, and that's getting worse not better. So billionaires own (and subsidise) newspapers, and get to influence content.

So either we start paying for our news, or we continue with the current situation. Though it's going to get worse because we're de-training an entire generation of journalists, and the advertising revenue is shrinking.

[RickJWagner]

I don't think public funding is good, either.

The BBC gets its revenues from public funding, but it's got a strong political bias.

[marcus_holmes]

Same for the ABC in Australia. They had some scandal recently with politicians intervening in stories.

[baq]

i'd say that tax money should go to newspapers but how do you disentangle tax money from politicians is... a bit of a problem.

[GarrisonPrime]

Why in the world would you want tax money to fund journalism?

[baq]

obviously because private money has sick incentives and there's only tax money besides private capital to work with. like i said the problem is tax money also has sick incentives.