Looks like a login wall. While I get the “joke” or irony, Journalism has never been free. Servers, journalists, investigations, and apps still cost money. So did printing and delivery. There are countless sources of information online so you do not have to join The Times but for some the journalistic value is worth the price.
Wikipedia offers knowledge to the world for free and are maintained through donation (including myself) and philanthropy. It has its issues but provides free information.
I think we can a enjoy a variety of options. Paid journalism, ad based news, and “free” community supported. There likely are other models we can adopt.
Other free sources I use. Roca News app Gabe Fleisher’s Wake up to Politics Knowledge at Wharton
Aye, very much this.
I don’t know it is in other countries but here in Germany some “baseline” news is provided from money collected via a tax, which is very awesome as it ensures everyone has access to at least some news source. On top of that there’s Wikipedia, as you say, but beyond that everyone still has to be aware that investigative journalism takes a lot of time and effort.
This is an inherent problem with the concept of free information. I would love universal and free information, but that doesn’t take into consideration that quality information requires labor. Wikipedia isn’t free of that either, the labor is just largely unpaid.
At the end of the day, we need to pay journalists, editors, curators, and contributors. If you want quality news, you need quality people. And to get quality people, you need generous compensation, whether that comes from subscriptions, advertisements, or taxes.
