Interesting. 15 years ago, I was lamenting people on this board that said they don’t pay for their news. I said a newspaper isn’t free. It costs money to produce content, paper or digital. I also told those same people that local reporting would start to disappear if you don’t support your local paper. The ST was pretty good back then.
I also criticized newspapers for offering their content for free online. It devalues your product. Hard to get new subscribers to pay for a paper in hard copy or digital if you are giving away 70 percent of content online for free. I suggested that all newspapers charge for online content back then, just half the price for digital versus a hard copy. I also told “I get my news for free people “, that once newspapers start dry up because of people like them, online content will move towards fee based.
We now get scant local news and quality is poor. Yes, things change, but the need for local news did not. Thus, we have too many people that will not pay for local news. So, you get what you pay for. Free gets you jack squat.