Note that the Guardian no-paywall beg for subscribers model can work surprisingly well - they've got 300,000 subscribers and another 500,000 more casual donors: http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/10/26/how-the-guardian-f...

I run a critical news blog about blockchains and I get about $200/mo on Patreon on this model. It's not a living, but it's a nice extra indeed.

I am delighted to answer publishers who go "but how can we live without spyware-level ads!!" with "have you tried not sucking?"

(I whitelist a few sites, e.g. LWN.net, and I don't block ads from the Project Wonderful network. If you don't suck, I might let you through!)