Great insights, Chris. Helped me better understand the WP's latest move. My worry with the 'democratization' of journalism through smaller substack models from a users perspective is twofold: how to avoid going too deep, or getting trapped, in a single echo chamber of my own choosing; and the challenge of putting together an array of news sources that will provide me with as objective view of 'truth' as is possible. I know I'm probably asking too much, but it reminds me of the 'cutting the chord' movement away from cable toward streaming content. Now, It seems like you need a dozen services to round out a person's appetite for certain content. It takes effort, and many subscription fees to 'give the people what they want'!
I do agree with your points, Chris. I have been a long time subscriber to both NYT and WaPo, and have happily paid to be subscribing to both. In reading the comments in WaPo's own stories on the change in leadership, many commented that it was not the fee driving away readership, but the paper's perceived swing to the right in focus. I counted a pretty large number of posters who said they cancelled their subscription immediately after hearing this latest news.
Well stated... Seriously speaking, think how lucky you are NOT to be a reporter drone at a legacy media outfit dealing w/ all that internal strife, dislocation, frustration, cratering readership, etc, etc... By design or good fortune you're where you want to be: you -- and your acquired knowledge, talents, work ethic and the free-market -- determine your future. easy? hell no. but having direct control of your future, and the freedom to pursue it, is everything.
As much as I agree with you, Chris, it is just another sign of how the country is fragmenting into isolated political solitudes and only consuming news that fits a given particular cultural/political perspective.
The problem is that without broad-based reporting by large, well-funded organizations, smaller news services lose most of their news content and, as such, just devolve into partisan opinion sites, trafficking in the latest conspiratorial gossip rather than actual news.
For once, I dare to say you are wrong. I live in Hungary, in a way smaller country than the US, also very different media market. Paid media -- newspapers -- is very much a thing. There are at least 2 major organizations which switched to a partially paid model, there is another which is building its business model largely on voluntary support. I have been reading a smaller political/literary newspaper which have been around the later part of a previous century -- its digital version have been costing money for a very long time.
People will get used to paying for the media. Maybe they will not be _that_ big, but they will be big enough to cover everything from hurricanes to major concerts and foreign and domestic politics.
Ps. By the way, I seem to remember hearing that the New York Times is actually growing, but I do not remember the source.
I subscribe to your summaries because I don’t have time to read other substacks or others and I depend on your expertise.
You mentioned CNN and others that will not go away. What about Fox which feels like it promotes truthiness in salacious stories? (See what I did there?)
How much more would The Washington Post have if they didn't lose 50% of their advertising revenue to Google/Facebook? I don't think it is necessarily that media outlets chose to make their money on advertising that doomed them. After all, the bulk of money made by pre-internet news media was through advertising.
Thanks, Chris, such great insight on what’s happening. I completely agree, even if it makes me sad to do so. All I wanted to be growing up was a newspaper reporter, covering the news and writing stories. And I got to do that for 8 years, before I saw what was coming and took a different path. I still get to write and I enjoy it, but it’s not the same. Journalism needs to endure and I hope through people like you, it can.
I subscribed to the Post for a while. Last year when my subscription ended, I couldn't read a single story on the site. If I went there, I was met with a subscription banner encouraging me to resubscribe. What did I learn in that year? Stop clicking links to their site because a former subscriber gets less than a never subscriber. That was more likely the CTO's call rather than the news editor. Did they fire that person, too? It's worth noting, too, that there were no retention offers. I used to subscribe to the LA Times, too. They did retention pretty well and kept me an extra year with an annual subscription deal.
Very interesting and thoughtful piece that gets me thinking. I agree that people are so used to not paying--you only have to go to the Capital Weather Gang's Facebook posts where they link to their story and people CONSTANTLY complain that it is behind a paywall. That said, the Post still makes stories available to everyone if they feel it is an emergency--weather issues, covid stories, etc.
I remember when trump was first elected and came after the "media". That is when the Post's subscriptions went way up. Now, I'm reading article after article on how bad Biden's numbers are, how a couple of low level staffers from departments are leaving the "Biden Administration" because of the stance on the Gaza war, etc. I'm also reading comment after comment from subscribers angry with how the Post is covering Biden and saying they are canceling their subscriptions because of that. I wonder if the new CEO addressed that in any way?
Trump and MAGA, with the push from Fox News (noise), have promoted “fake news” for 15 years which has led to a 50% automatic drop in readership of true journalism. So NYT, Wapo have a smaller audience, less revenue, and we get a dumbed down electorate. Until Fox noise is called out for who they are and the damage promoted in teaming with Trump and Republicans with incessant lying and democracy bashing we will continue to lose actual journalism.
Chris - another great edition of "The Morning" :) I think you'll be happy to know that I'm spending my former WaPo money on Substacks like this one (and Mehdi Hasan's Zeteo) now. Perhaps its the specificity of the content on here that helps, like you said. I wish there were more outlets for sharing your content with others though since I'm anti-X and my beloved Post.news just shuttered. Any recommendations?
I 110% agree... i balk at paying for postage! i got used to not paying for it and now when i am asked to pony up i will spend an inordinate amount of time searching other sites that do not charge for the same thing. it is nuts. I also can't remember where i heard this, but Trump has been fabulous for the news business. I have paid subscriptions to so many sites one might wonder how i have time for that thing called work. so... get people to pay for a good/service, get people to see that there have been warning bells all along about a "Trump" and news sources, particularly local news sources are the only antidote, it's not always going to be a major crisis that we should be paying attention to... small stuff matters, and support the arts :).
Great insights, Chris. Helped me better understand the WP's latest move. My worry with the 'democratization' of journalism through smaller substack models from a users perspective is twofold: how to avoid going too deep, or getting trapped, in a single echo chamber of my own choosing; and the challenge of putting together an array of news sources that will provide me with as objective view of 'truth' as is possible. I know I'm probably asking too much, but it reminds me of the 'cutting the chord' movement away from cable toward streaming content. Now, It seems like you need a dozen services to round out a person's appetite for certain content. It takes effort, and many subscription fees to 'give the people what they want'!
I do agree with your points, Chris. I have been a long time subscriber to both NYT and WaPo, and have happily paid to be subscribing to both. In reading the comments in WaPo's own stories on the change in leadership, many commented that it was not the fee driving away readership, but the paper's perceived swing to the right in focus. I counted a pretty large number of posters who said they cancelled their subscription immediately after hearing this latest news.
Well stated... Seriously speaking, think how lucky you are NOT to be a reporter drone at a legacy media outfit dealing w/ all that internal strife, dislocation, frustration, cratering readership, etc, etc... By design or good fortune you're where you want to be: you -- and your acquired knowledge, talents, work ethic and the free-market -- determine your future. easy? hell no. but having direct control of your future, and the freedom to pursue it, is everything.
Well said. I think about it all the time.
As much as I agree with you, Chris, it is just another sign of how the country is fragmenting into isolated political solitudes and only consuming news that fits a given particular cultural/political perspective.
The problem is that without broad-based reporting by large, well-funded organizations, smaller news services lose most of their news content and, as such, just devolve into partisan opinion sites, trafficking in the latest conspiratorial gossip rather than actual news.
Appreciate your insight, Chris.
You talked about the recording industry- if they had figured out mp3s first, they probably would be in much better shape today.
I never pay for music. Why should I?
We are the media now ;)
For once, I dare to say you are wrong. I live in Hungary, in a way smaller country than the US, also very different media market. Paid media -- newspapers -- is very much a thing. There are at least 2 major organizations which switched to a partially paid model, there is another which is building its business model largely on voluntary support. I have been reading a smaller political/literary newspaper which have been around the later part of a previous century -- its digital version have been costing money for a very long time.
People will get used to paying for the media. Maybe they will not be _that_ big, but they will be big enough to cover everything from hurricanes to major concerts and foreign and domestic politics.
Ps. By the way, I seem to remember hearing that the New York Times is actually growing, but I do not remember the source.
I subscribe to your summaries because I don’t have time to read other substacks or others and I depend on your expertise.
You mentioned CNN and others that will not go away. What about Fox which feels like it promotes truthiness in salacious stories? (See what I did there?)
How much more would The Washington Post have if they didn't lose 50% of their advertising revenue to Google/Facebook? I don't think it is necessarily that media outlets chose to make their money on advertising that doomed them. After all, the bulk of money made by pre-internet news media was through advertising.
Thanks, Chris, such great insight on what’s happening. I completely agree, even if it makes me sad to do so. All I wanted to be growing up was a newspaper reporter, covering the news and writing stories. And I got to do that for 8 years, before I saw what was coming and took a different path. I still get to write and I enjoy it, but it’s not the same. Journalism needs to endure and I hope through people like you, it can.
I subscribed to the Post for a while. Last year when my subscription ended, I couldn't read a single story on the site. If I went there, I was met with a subscription banner encouraging me to resubscribe. What did I learn in that year? Stop clicking links to their site because a former subscriber gets less than a never subscriber. That was more likely the CTO's call rather than the news editor. Did they fire that person, too? It's worth noting, too, that there were no retention offers. I used to subscribe to the LA Times, too. They did retention pretty well and kept me an extra year with an annual subscription deal.
Very interesting and thoughtful piece that gets me thinking. I agree that people are so used to not paying--you only have to go to the Capital Weather Gang's Facebook posts where they link to their story and people CONSTANTLY complain that it is behind a paywall. That said, the Post still makes stories available to everyone if they feel it is an emergency--weather issues, covid stories, etc.
I remember when trump was first elected and came after the "media". That is when the Post's subscriptions went way up. Now, I'm reading article after article on how bad Biden's numbers are, how a couple of low level staffers from departments are leaving the "Biden Administration" because of the stance on the Gaza war, etc. I'm also reading comment after comment from subscribers angry with how the Post is covering Biden and saying they are canceling their subscriptions because of that. I wonder if the new CEO addressed that in any way?
Trump and MAGA, with the push from Fox News (noise), have promoted “fake news” for 15 years which has led to a 50% automatic drop in readership of true journalism. So NYT, Wapo have a smaller audience, less revenue, and we get a dumbed down electorate. Until Fox noise is called out for who they are and the damage promoted in teaming with Trump and Republicans with incessant lying and democracy bashing we will continue to lose actual journalism.
Chris - another great edition of "The Morning" :) I think you'll be happy to know that I'm spending my former WaPo money on Substacks like this one (and Mehdi Hasan's Zeteo) now. Perhaps its the specificity of the content on here that helps, like you said. I wish there were more outlets for sharing your content with others though since I'm anti-X and my beloved Post.news just shuttered. Any recommendations?
Chris
I 110% agree... i balk at paying for postage! i got used to not paying for it and now when i am asked to pony up i will spend an inordinate amount of time searching other sites that do not charge for the same thing. it is nuts. I also can't remember where i heard this, but Trump has been fabulous for the news business. I have paid subscriptions to so many sites one might wonder how i have time for that thing called work. so... get people to pay for a good/service, get people to see that there have been warning bells all along about a "Trump" and news sources, particularly local news sources are the only antidote, it's not always going to be a major crisis that we should be paying attention to... small stuff matters, and support the arts :).
thanks