Dan GillmorDear @TheAtlantic -- Putting your important journalism about the fascist threat to our democracy behind a paywall is a mistake.
The message you're sending about your priorities is not a positive one.
Thomas Baekdal@dangillmor @TheAtlantic I'm sorry, but this is a misguided mindset. We are seeing massive levels of layoff in the industry, and journalists are not wealthy philanthropists.
In a time of crisis, you don't tell nurses to work for free to help the injured. So telling journalists to not get paid for their important work is wrong.
Instead, as a reader, you should support this very important form of journalism!
@baekdal I subscribe and have for a long time. On a topic of this importance I would drop the paywall. @TheAtlantic
@dangillmor @TheAtlantic
I get what you are saying, but I don't agree. Demanding that important news should be made available for free (and by that extension, that important news should be paid for by the newspapers as a form of public charity to the public) undermines journalism as an industry because it means we can only make money from non-important news which is not profitable... and 20,000 journalists have lost their jobs this year alone.
I get what you are saying, but I don't agree. Demanding that important news should be made available for free (and by that extension, that important news should be paid for by the newspapers as a form of public charity to the public) undermines journalism as an industry because it means we can only make money from non-important news which is not profitable... and 20,000 journalists have lost their jobs this year alone.
@baekdal Advice, not a demand.
I'm saying that in this single case, the consequences of what they're reporting are so dire that -- if I were running the org, which has always needed and still has rich benefactors' support -- it merits opening up.
That would, or at least should, drive more subscriptions. @TheAtlantic
Joe Ortiz@dangillmor @baekdal @TheAtlantic This should be a public service type of exception, considering that our existence as a democracy is on the line here.
By the way, you should read this from Nathan J. Robinson over at Current Affairs (published in 2020) as it's still relevant today: https://www.currentaffairs.org/2020/08/the-truth-is-paywalled-but-the-lies-are-free
