If I start paying for it today, they wont magically start writing proper articles again.

The news media has gotten themselves stuck in a bad Nash equilibrium. Guilting indiviudals into paying wont change that. Systemic change is required.

> this is what they have to do

They could always close the shop too.

"We need to keep the revenue coming in these changing times" is not a justification for descending deeper and deeper into immoral and anti-social behavior.

Not to mention, the way market economy works means that even if we'd all start paying for shitty pseudo-journalism today, the influx of money will not make them climb back out of the ethical/quality hole - it'll only validate getting worse as a growth model.

I pay about $2k/yr for news sites and the variability is high even for paid sites. Check out the WSJ Editorial pages if you want to observe diminished writing ability.

This whole thread we’re in was started by someone observing how well-written and clear the original article is, so I don’t think the only way to get clicks is to write in the way I’m complaining about.