• Flying Squid
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    255 hours ago

    Why the hell is CNN charging a subscription now? Are people really stupid enough to pay it?

    • @Joeffect
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      112 minutes ago

      Press the button that makes all that stuff go away so you can just read the article…

    • @qisope
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      -55 hours ago

      do you prefer ads?

        • @qisope
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          29 minutes ago

          Keeping in mind that I am not debating the merits of CNN specifically — unfortunately in a reality where there are no subscription or similar means to pay for professional journalism, and everyone is blocking ads, these services die. Both the ones you approve of, and the ones you don’t.

      • Flying Squid
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        285 hours ago

        I prefer quality journalism, not paying for the shit CNN generally churns out. Are you really suggesting it’s worth paying for CNN? We’re not exactly talking about Deutsche Welle here in terms of journalistic integrity and serious reporting just because they have the occasional decent article.

        • @qisope
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          42 hours ago

          I think it’s a reasonable response to the ‘why the hell they’re charging a subscription now’ part of your question. Probably not a question you actually wanted an answer to, but regardless of opinions about the quality of their journalism I think it’s important that publishers are investigating alternate ways to monetize their work — publishers want to rely on ads for revenue about as much as readers want to see them. A fragmented subscription model across the whole industry being the right answer seems doubtful, but at least it gives them a revenue stream which doesn’t come with advertiser strings attached. And who knows, maybe it will positively change the content they put out if they garner enough subscribers with high enough expectations to pay.