We pay a bundle for entertainment, but not for news. And we get what we pay for.
How many entertainment subscriptions do you have? My cable TV package is just big enough to get the White Sox, plus more than enough reminders of the channels I can't watch. But wait, there's more:
- Netflix, even though I can't really chill
- Amazon Prime, because shipping is free
- MLB TV, filling the urgent need for baseball in March
- Peacock, for old Battlestar Gallactica
- HBO Plus, to watch competitive ceramics
- Apple Plus, because I bought an iPhone
- Disney Plus, because baby Yoda
- Hulu, because at least it isn't Hulu Plus
- I think I needed Roku to watch Apple Plus
- Maybe there's some other subscription kept on the down low
Now, how many news subscriptions do you have?
I have the Chicago Tribune, Chicago Sun-Times, Block Club Chicago, New York Times and Washington Post. I have work accounts for quite a few more sites, which sometimes means when I log in the website gives my boss a cheery welcome.
I may be an outlier because I'm willing to pay other people for what they do. Most people heard the phrase "information wants to be free" and didn't think it was about censorship. They thought, yeah, I like free stuff!
So getting something for free is now the business model for the internet, as well as trade show exhibits, the Democratic Party and the Republican Party. The strategy doesn't hold up well.
As a boomer of course I'll admit I had a hand in every bad situation. My college newspaper experience was to go to the lunch counter at Rennebohm Drug, get a cup of coffee and ask if someone else's newspaper is stashed behind the counter. When I built websites in the 1990s, this was the experience I was trying to recreate.
