The web should always be free is one of the mantras that started back when the forefathers of the web were ordaining rules for the new medium. Except that in the beginning it was not a "medium", it was really a way to share academic research and so forth. Information should be free.
But the web became a place to buy books - with the rise and rise of Amazon. It became a place to buy anything with web shops everywhere - some that work and many that simply do not.
A catalogue of products obviously is not something you can ask for a subscription to, but the news media produce access to information that is not exclusive. It originates from the public domain so charging for it, per se, seems unnatural.
Charging for a document that carries advertising makes perfect sense. But the internet's evolution has deconstructed that idea. Now we are all so overloaded with information that the very idea of paying for any of it seems downright silly.
In this brave new world, journalists and content makers are expected to make a living for free.
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