News, paywalls and the tabloid quandary
Photo by Digital Buggu from Pexels
We totally understand the rationale behind a newspaper paywall. With traditional print ad revenues in terminal decline and ad-blockers hammering their online cousins, it's the obvious choice for a publication with a heavy talent overhead to manage.
The issue is this: as more and more broadsheets head behind paywalls worldwide, the standard of journalism that's available to the majority of people inevitably declines.
Take a look at the content that doesn't reside behind a paywall and you get the gist – we won't list them here, but it's safe to say that the UK's red tops aren't among those who – rightly in many people's views – charge for quality journalism.
Google's Chrome update to Incognito mode inadvertently skirted around some paywalls, but the fact remains that a number of the UK's better-researched news publications are now unavailable to the majority of people without the necessary disposable income to afford to subscribe to them.
Apple News – at least without user attention to its configuration – is another culprit, showing content from a number of the UK's more sensationalist titles unless you choose to refine your news sources.
And then there's the chunk of users that get their news from social media, some 49% of the UK according to Ofcom's latest research. This is the wild west of journalism, where random conspiracy theories and questionable news outlets pump 'news' into the feeds of a chunk of users that lack the time (or perhaps the skills) to cross-reference these stories for veracity.
It's a worrying trend as right-wing leaders around the world round on the press and many of our outlets at home spew out some worryingly politicised narratives.
There are, of course, still plenty of quality news sources, but should one or more of our more well-known titles disappear behind paywalls, or premium subscriptions, the balance will arguably have tipped too far. Of course, much of that is in our hands…
