What's the alternative? Subscriptions aren't affordable for poor people, government funding creates a conflict of interests, and so does relying on philanthropists.
A mixture so you get different biases (to atleast some extent). That way different problems offset each other.
> Subscriptions aren't affordable for poor people
If people are affluent enough that advertising to them supports the business, then they probably do have the money to pay.
Most people in rich countries certainly can afford to pay. 68% of households in the UK have streaming services, most of the rest pay the TV license fee to the BBC. A lot of those who do not choose not to, rather than being unable to afford to.
> government funding creates a conflict of interest
There are ways of dealing with this and blocking government interference. Hypothecated taxes as in the UK.
Substack? Independent journalism? Pay-what-you-want? Donation-funded publications? I'm not saying I have a solution, just that that's "ads" are bad place to start. I certainly read plenty of non-advertisement-based coverage.
Good news costs money, and the poor get propagandized to.
I'm not even sure how the NyTimes justifies this with their massive subscription revenue. They probably just expect people to suck it up, despite greatly lowering the value of their product.
Anyway, Manufacturing Consent came out almost 40 years ago and we're still stuck in the same place if you only look at cable news, newspapers, and radio. Hell even NPR pimps themselves to the nearest think-tanks and corporations (despite a reputation for delivering unbiased coverage from the perspective of liberals)—during the iraq war people with little subtlety referred to them as "national petroleum radio".
> Subscriptions aren't affordable for poor people
If people are affluent enough that advertising to them supports the business, then they probably do have the money to pay.
Most people in rich countries certainly can afford to pay. 68% of households in the UK have streaming services, most of the rest pay the TV license fee to the BBC. A lot of those who do not choose not to, rather than being unable to afford to.
> government funding creates a conflict of interest
There are ways of dealing with this and blocking government interference. Hypothecated taxes as in the UK.
> so does relying on philanthropists.
Different conflicts of interest though.