Why are some high profile news organizations hiding behind a firewall?

[icymist]

Do they need money more badly than National Interest? What about our country that gave you the freedom to do what you do?

[shanny]

1. hmm. maybe they need money to operate.

[Achilleaze]

2. There you have it

Also the general thrust of Royal KGOP Republican Rule, Inc. and Republican Corporate MindSet, Inc. strategy is to KILL the free Intertubes.

As we have seen systematically demonstrated, KGOP republicans & their evil-empire* russian comrades think INFORMATION is dangerous, and should be CONTROLLED. Thus, they are tickled pinko to aid and abet other forces bearing upon the monetization of the net.

* per ronald reagan

[mythology]

16. What utter nonsense

Just because something is on the Internet doesn't mean it didn't cost anything. Reporters and editors need to be paid, the lights kept on etc.

You paid for news on TV with watching ads, but ads on TV pay more than ads on the Internet. It's ridiculous to claim it's all some big conspiracy.

[Achilleaze]

17. Ahh, you are the one who brought up "conspiracy"

So don't try and pin it on me. You are welcome to your mythological fantasy life, but you have no cause to Go Snowflake when Corporate Republican Reality intrudes on your cherished Myths with real life.

[Lee-Lee]

3. How do you plan for them to pay the bills?

Ad revenue for online ads can make a lot of money for clickbat sites that just repeat other people’s work or make up stuff, but real news requires employing real people to do real journalism and those real people like to do things like eat, sleep in a home or apartment, have clothes and all that- so they need to be paid. And those real people have expenses like travel and offices and technology.

[genxlib]

4. This is not a reasonable complaint

They are not hiding behind firewalls. They are trying to generate cash flow to run their operation.

Doing real news reporting and running a media organization cost money.

Even if they were a non-profit, they would still need funds to operate.

The biggest problem in the news/internet industry right now is that there is very little actual news being generated. I mean old fashion investigative reporting where new facts are brought to light. That costs money.

Most of what you see on the internet that is nominally classified as news is actually commentary. Some of it is just straight up opinion or conjecture. But most of it referential commentary where they link to real news, cull the highlights and comment about it. Often this is done as spin to represent the source article to a particular audience to the right or left.

I will call this Vampire News. It is adding almost nothing in value to the original story but sucks up page views and advertising revenue. Meanwhile, the source of the original news has the highest investment and is left starving for revenue.

The trend over the last 30 years is to have less and less source news and more vampire news. This is an incredibly dangerous trend. Without the source news, we have nothing but opinions.

WaPo is one of the few organizations still doing old fashioned journalism. I support their right to get paid for what they produce. If we don't support them, we will get what we pay for.

[Blue_Adept]

5. At least get the word right: it's PAYWALL

Not firewall. That's a whole other thing.

But even without that this is a terrible post. Just another attempt to get people to work for free and create for free.

[NCTraveler]

6. Journalism isnt free.

It isn’t charity work.

[Demsrule86]

7. I like free ...free is good But in order to have news...you have to pay for it...if someone does not

pay for it, there will be no news. Same is true of books, music and movies...also TV.

[Roland99]

8. Um without a firewall they're an open invite to hackers

Firewalls are the most basic and common sensical methods of network protection

[NightWatcher]

9. Do you get paid for your work?

If you wrote a book, would you sell it or just give it away for free to everyone?

If the story is so groundbreaking, it will get picked up and carried nationwide.

Plus if you just have to read it but don't want to pay, there are easily available workarounds.

[Mr. Ected]

10. Freedom of the press does not mean the press works for free

But as an established pillar of our constitutional values and a prime element of balance of powers, it does seem incongruous that so much of their work is determined by their funding or lack thereof.

Should the press be run like a non-profit?

[USALiberal]

11. Seriously? Do you also wonder why movies cost money to watch? n/t

[Atman]

12. MSNBC has a free live stream

Actually, it's a simulcast. No commercials (they're replaced with self-promos or weather). It will run for 90 minutes before asking you to register (free), but you can simply reload the page and it will start another 90 minutes. And yes, it's legal. It's a European feed of what is called MSNBC International. You can thank me later.

www.livenewschat.eu/politics

[MineralMan]

13. Perhaps their business models require that they show a profit?

They're not hiding from public view, but they expect their visitors to pay to read. Kind of like newspapers that charge for their printed edition.

You can walk by the newspaper box and read the headlines at the top of the front page, but if you want more, you have to put your quarters in the slot.

It's called the "news business" for a reason.

What do you do for a living?

[sofa king]

14. Josh Marshall just wrote a thing about this.

He says flat out that the pressure is coming from video advertisers, who want more or all-video content so that they can front and back load a bunch of 30 second clips with 30 second ads.

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/edblog/theres-a-digital-media-crash-but-no-one-will-say-it

[hexola]

15. CBSN is also good for 24 live streaming

https://www.cbsnews.com/

[FarCenter]

18. In order to replace lost subscription revenue as people move from print to online.

Freedom don't pay the rent.