A subsidised micropayment model to rescue local messengers
For decades, news relied heavily on being subsidised by advertising. The arrival of disruptive technologies, such as social media, meant that many more parties arrived to claim a piece of the advertising cake. New models meant that the cake was transformed into crumbs, with Big Tech able to scoop up enough crumbs to get incredibly fat. The rest, which included the small local news vendors, barely survived and started to disappear from the scene. To exacerbate matters, the ad industry appears to have no conscience, not caring whether it sponsors clickbait or hate speech.
