Originally published at: DC’s Access Journalists Turned the News Into a Luxury Good - TPM – Talking Points Memo
Before the internet, what would today be called a “paywall” was just a place where people could buy a newspaper or magazine. Your subscription or newsstand purchase didn’t pay for every far-flung reporter; media outlets subsidized access to readers with advertising and other revenue streams. But though the barrier to entry was relatively low, it…
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Excellent overview of the shifting economics in journalism.
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I’m small fry compared to publications like TPM or The American Prospect. But many years ago I decided never to paywall any of my reporting about Iowa politics. When publications put their best original reporting behind a paywall, that’s great for the people in power. It guarantees limited reach for any accountability journalism.
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And as publications raise their prices (e.g. the New York Times) and more authors move to Substack, it gets ever more expensive to access the news.
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