And, because this was not too annoying, and was manageable, the consumers of media put up with it, mostly, and subscribed sometimes. The old media sucked, sure, but it was a regulated, genteel, sort of suck. It wasn’t obviously predatory because the new media preyed on itself as much as it did on the old media, but what it did was suck all the oxygen out of the subscription-based media model, rendering the old media unsustainable and bankrupting it. Because the new media, in order to provide its goods for free had to make the same devil’s bargain with advertisers that the old media did. I’m not crying for The Washington Post or any of the old media, but I’m not going to cry for the new media, either.

Source: The Guardian April 29, 2023 17:29 UTC