I think the patron model of news is growing and is certainly promising. If you run a small operation, you don't need a LOT of paying subscribers to fund an operation.
As is usually the case, I think news outlets are their own worst enemy here, due to a lack of second order thinking. Paying for the daily newspaper used to just be a thing people did.
A lot of companies got so dedicated to the clickbait model, it led to a rush to create as much mediocre content as possible to drive traffic. Now everyone is sick of it, and a lot of readers, viewers, and subscribers do appear uninterested in paying for the stuff they've been getting for free.
I think there is some mileage for Substack too - kinda in between subscription and a tip jar. HOWEVER, someone else needs to do the heavy lifting of fixing the ecosystem bit. And not with the Apple News/ Kindle Unlimited/ Spotify model where the platform takes a disproportionate share of the revenue.
I think the patron model of news is growing and is certainly promising. If you run a small operation, you don't need a LOT of paying subscribers to fund an operation.
As is usually the case, I think news outlets are their own worst enemy here, due to a lack of second order thinking. Paying for the daily newspaper used to just be a thing people did.
A lot of companies got so dedicated to the clickbait model, it led to a rush to create as much mediocre content as possible to drive traffic. Now everyone is sick of it, and a lot of readers, viewers, and subscribers do appear uninterested in paying for the stuff they've been getting for free.
Great article!
I think there is some mileage for Substack too - kinda in between subscription and a tip jar. HOWEVER, someone else needs to do the heavy lifting of fixing the ecosystem bit. And not with the Apple News/ Kindle Unlimited/ Spotify model where the platform takes a disproportionate share of the revenue.