this post was submitted on 10 Feb 2024
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For everyone complaining about 404media needing an account for the posts, they explain their reasoning here : https://www.404media.co/why-404-media-needs-your-email-address/
They're fully within their rights to restrict access to their content, just as everyone complaining is fully within their rights to not give up their email to access content.
I realize independent media financing is a huge struggle right now, and the quality of journalism has been in a downwards spiral for decades now. Clearly, the current system is unsustainable, I agree with 404media on that much. I wholeheartedly disagree with restricting access to information as a solution, as that seems completely opposed to what journalism should aim to achieve.
For most of its history, journalism has been locked behind a paywall. I think it's a bit disingeneous to claim that this principle is against the idea of journalism. Journalism and especially good journalism is expensive - under a capitalist system, it's entirely normal to ask for your work to be valued through monetary means.
That said, I'm most annoyed because no one is actually talking about Stract, just about how 404media decided to lock the article.
It worked in the history doesn't mean it should be continued that way. Also neighbors and companies tended to share the same newspaper back then.
Writing was also a much rarer skill in the past.
Newpapers are available in public libraries