i've been reading HN for the last 4 years or so. over that time ive slowly gotten rid of social media; first by uninstalling apps, then by deleting accounts. Lately I decided to get rid of reddit, which had had a huge impact on my media consumption. I've found myself taking the time to read articles posted on here, and as such Ive found a few sites that I favor for content.
Early on I simply read comments if a site was blocked, then went to archives, and now i'm finding myself paying for sites I appreciate. I feel like this is an eventual outcome for many, but getting users to consume "long form" media is the trick. If it weren't for these free peaks at the content, I would never have come around to paying for it.
Maybe all these paywalled sites could start a subscription service where you pay one low monthly fee and get access to X sites with it.
Then every publisher that is a member of the subscription service gets an amount of money proportionate to the number of subscribers that read their articles.
Seems so obvious to me but maybe there’s a reason why it wouldn’t (or hasn’t) worked.
