[Yen]

I disagree. Don't pay for the news.

I might pay for Netflix or HBO. If one is insufficiently entertaining, I won't. It makes sense for Netflix/HBO to compete on producing the most entertaining and addicting product, and I know that's exactly what I'm paying for.

If news agencies are funded by having more subscribers, they'll also be incentivized to produce the most entertaining and addictive content.

The value of news is not in telling me what I want to hear, nor you what you want to hear, it's in telling us what we need to hear but don't want to. You & I might both be high-minded enough to pay for news that bores us or offends us - but I hardly expect the typical person to do so.

I don't have a better suggestion - but a per-article paywall, or even a subscription, leads to the same clickbait sensationalist rot that advertiser-supported news suffered.

[egonschiele]

Great, so you are saying that NO news is preferable to the current situation.

[c22]

Elsewhere in this thread you've claimed that demand for news is universal. With such high demand why do you fear a NO news situation? If all classical news outlets die surely something will rise up to fill this void? Sure, it may not look anything like what we currently have, but that's kind of the point.

[egonschiele]

This concept is not new, it's called Tragedy of the Commons (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons). Basically, everyone wants something and no one wants to pay for it.

[c22]

I'm familiar with the trope, but "news" is not some finite resource we might accidentally use up, so that wouldn't seem to apply here.

Perhaps no one is currently willing to pay for it because (a) they don't have to and (b) a lot of it is utter garbage. It doesn't stand that should these "options" disappear other ones wouldn't take their place, perhaps even ones worth paying for.

[egonschiele]

Terrific, you're welcome to not pay for the news and not read it then. Getting NO information must be the better option if what you are saying is true. People have spent their lives doing this job, but surely you know better.