[YurgenJurgensen]

In the olden days, those people wrote for things we called ‘magazines’. Without infinite free content at people’s fingertips, actually paying for curated content will likely make a comeback.

[Aurornis]

Magazines primarily make money through advertising.

Even that “curated” content is often the result of a company’s PR professionals sending free gear for review and possibly wining and dining the writers.

[mc32]

It’s a bit harder to find stuff in a magazine that helps troubleshoot a water pump at night…

[YurgenJurgensen]

I’m going to shock you, but you can pay for magazine-like content through the Internet right now.

[mrguyorama]

That information used to come with the water pump

[mc32]

How many people keep those docs around? It’s also easier to search on YT than rifle though the pump manual which may include all failure modes…

[justapassenger]

You do realize that sponsored stories aren’t modern invention? Magazines were full of it too, sometimes disclosed, most often not.

[YurgenJurgensen]

And? They’d be banned too.

[runarberg]

In fact they were, and perhaps even still are, however regulators have simply stopped enforcing consumer protection laws in the past 20 years. Neo-liberalism reigns supreme and Ronald Regan became the king of Europe.