News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by gwbas1c on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @05:39PM (#29168502)
> You can pay publishers directly already by buying subscriptions

But that's not how most of us access news. We look at sources like Twitter, Hacker News, Facebook, Google News for links to articles.

Subscribing to a single website doesn't work in this model.

Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by tootie on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @08:13PM (#29169938)
Who is "we"? I look at aggregators but I also subscribe at the source for publications I value.
Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by rch on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @11:05PM (#29170956)
It's difficult to find valuable sources though. I'm currently spending over $100 a month on subscriptions, and and I still feel like my sources are biased and myopic.
Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by mikojan on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @07:22PM (#29169463)
Why wouldn't it work? You simply subscribe to a publisher you are valuing.
Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by erik_seaberg on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @10:16PM (#29170664)
How many different publishers did I visit once or twice this week? Probably a lot, but I’m not sure which, or how much all of them would cost.

Subscription-only articles suffer from the opposite of the network effect. If I pick 1/n publishers to subscribe to, and you pick 1/n, the odds I can read something you tried to share are only 1/n^2. It might help if there were wire services for major topics I care about.

Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by gwbas1c on Sunday November 14, 2021 @05:40PM (#29221443)
If I subscribed to every publisher I valued, I'd pay more than I pay for Netflix, YouTube, Amazon, and Disney+ combined!

I think if the music industry can come out with a 1-subscription-fits-most model, I'm sure the journalism industry can figure out how to evenly distribute a modest $5-15 subscription fee.

Re:Twitter Blue is now available in the US and NZ by chaorace on Tuesday November 09, 2021 @11:06PM (#29170969)
It's quite the feat to convince someone to pay for something they already get for free, particularly in the digital space... Aha! The answer has been right under our noses the entire time: we need to sell online media subscriptions as NFTs!