• pathief@lemmy.world
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    1 month ago

    I often wonder how news websites are supposed to survive. People (myself included) want unbiased news websites without paywalls and ads.

    How are they supposed to pay their staff?

    • CheeseNoodle@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      I’m fine with ads when they don’t take up half my screen or try and shift the page to to trick me into clicking on them, should a stuck with sidebar adds.

    • cley_faye@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      Subscription models. Some sites even combine some free articles with it, so that anyone can look into their works, but not necessarily everything. If it fits you, you get a subscription. Sort of the same way people would pay for their daily newspaper.

      It can be argued that “news” should be free, and there are some news site that are basically picking up AP/AFP/whatever and repost these, but actual journalism do requires work.

    • MonkderVierte@lemmy.ml
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      1 month ago

      If your website is a business, you need to have a business model. If your business model isn’t sustainable, because it relies on not annoying visitors too much, maybe look for a better one.

      Btw, most newspages have adapted some 10 years ago already, showing the important news for free and additional details with paid account. A lot have the balance off tho.

    • Donkter@lemmy.world
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      1 month ago

      The best business model is one that allows users to pay what they want. Unfortunately that means most of these sites would go out of business, which is not what they want so they’ll keep forcing more and more invasive ads on people until the dam truly breaks.