The current trickle down theory of economics is all well and good except that nobody is bothered trickling down. Weath is sticky, and levering it away from the masses in small quantity is the art of becoming a large economic force.
That is what drives the news industry. If they get their circulation figures high enough their real estate is more effective and so goes for a higher price. They do not so much make money selling individual copies - they may even lose if they do not sell most of them. Many Saturday editions may be sold at a loss, if it causes the other 5 editions to be profitable, thats business.
And then along came the internet and a plethora of free indexed content always available and relegating all other news sources as secondary to it. How can journalism survive?
Now that delivery is virtually free, news can be free. But news sources are not free. To finance these a team of specialists are required at every location. American capitalism has produced the news sponsor as a solution to funding such activities. New Zealand does the same. Plus lots of advertising.
The charging of users a participation fee is not that unusual. The assumption that any particular loyalty to a publication is not so present as before as the emporer has nothing to hide that most of the newspaper we pay for is received by lots of news sources and we can see them all simultaneously. So wny pay for it?
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