[slg]

>Maybe we move to a model where low quality/#FakeNews is free but quality costs

Are you being facetious with the fake news reference? I don't know what the answer to this problem is, but I hope it isn't a system in which we just lie to poor people and they can only get the truth if they pay up.

Prestige newspapers might not have been widely available for free, but there were certainly credible news sources that were. Free over the air TV and radio broadcasts were once the primary news sources for many Americans, but unfortunately the quality of both has declined. It is a chicken and egg problem so I don't know which started to decline first, but easy access to high quality news is important for an educated electorate which is crucial to a well functioning democracy.

[ghaff]

>Are you being facetious with the fake news reference?

Not really. Broadcast news is ad-supported too--hence the decline in quality. You either have subscriptions--ad-supported, or taxpayer supported--as has been historically the case in the UK. So, yes, if ads don't work, either only the wealthier get access to higher quality news, people use libraries (good luck with that), or the government funds (which has its own source of issues).

Someone needs to pay for it.

[slg]

Ok, I understand your reasoning. The use of the specific term "fake news" rubbed me the wrong way. That term is linked with malicious propaganda so your initial comment called to mind dystopian ideas of having an underclass that the rest of society agrees to keep in their place through lies and deceit.

There are other options beyond just ad supported and tax payer supported. You can make news reporting a requirement of other government deals like what happened with over the air TV. You can do some sort of patronage model. That can range anywhere from a single source like people expected Bezos to handle WaPo, to the NPR model over numerous patrons, to the early internet model of still selling subscriptions but not putting the news behind a paywall. I'm sure there are plenty of other models out there too.

[robjan]

Is that not what happens anyway? In the UK, for example, the good quality print newspapers cost £2+ whereas the tabloid rags cost 20p.

[dillonmckay]

That is already happening. Both New York Times and the Washington Post use paywalls, whereas Fox News is totally free.