Still can't believe Bezos bought the Washington Post for 0.005 twitters (less than one of his boats)

A big underlying reason why journalists are so mad at everything, and at tech especially, is that the economics of news are terrible

Daimo Pay. Build once, distribute everywhere

What happens? Darwinism. Most outlets that make it adapt to an ad-based model, changing from a recurring revenue business (sticky, trust based) to an entertainment business (bursty, hit based; a single viral story pays more clicks than a year of good-but-boring local journalism).

One side effect is Bad Vibes in journalism land. Trust fund NYU kids doing unpaid internships; postgrads writing for $35k/year, cancelling each other. Crabs in a bucket.

Another is the new reliance on the Current Thing. Something you can keep milking for clicks for months. Far more valuable than a one-off story!

Trump was the ultimate repeat-star Current Thing. First his campaign, russiagate, muller report, second campaign, etc. Saved a bunch of news outlets from bankruptcy.

Not optimistic about trad news until they find a new funding model.

All current ones seem bad.

- Subscribers. ⬇️
- Ads. See above.
- Donors. For local papers, this means local honchos... which the paper will then have a hard time criticizing objectively.
- Get bought by an individual. I guess it depends who...

Pre-internet, most of college-educated America subscribed to a newspaper. If you didn't, you'd be last to know important things.

Trouble is, information is a non-excludable good. Post internet, no matter who gets the scoop, we all see it ~immediately. The rails are efficient.

Subscribing is strictly optional now: