Can't agree with people "refusing to pay for something they experience as a public good" when said public good only became public when the internet arrived. Before that everyone paid for a newspaper - and classified ads. And then there was a 10- or so year period when outlets were just giving away their news product online until they finally came up with ways to charge for it. The public got really spoiled during that time and still hasn't come around to the notion of paying for news plus there are zillions of copycat sites that rewrite and rip off original reporting from those that do produce news. Maybe you can make some stories 'news you can use' but you can't do that with foreign news or beats like religion, sports, military, courts...
One other thing about local news: It's not always positive or pleasant. The best stuff are investigations about those uranium tailings down the creek or those city contracts that always get given to the same firms - none of that is useful, but it's darned important.
So much of the news that matters isn't about the government; it's about the private sector. The cost of electricity, and why, say. Which grocery chain supports local farmers. But the private sector can fight back, costing the paper a fortune in litigation, and whatever is left in ad revenue. That's the reason I don't think it would work.
Can't agree with people "refusing to pay for something they experience as a public good" when said public good only became public when the internet arrived. Before that everyone paid for a newspaper - and classified ads. And then there was a 10- or so year period when outlets were just giving away their news product online until they finally came up with ways to charge for it. The public got really spoiled during that time and still hasn't come around to the notion of paying for news plus there are zillions of copycat sites that rewrite and rip off original reporting from those that do produce news. Maybe you can make some stories 'news you can use' but you can't do that with foreign news or beats like religion, sports, military, courts...
One other thing about local news: It's not always positive or pleasant. The best stuff are investigations about those uranium tailings down the creek or those city contracts that always get given to the same firms - none of that is useful, but it's darned important.
So much of the news that matters isn't about the government; it's about the private sector. The cost of electricity, and why, say. Which grocery chain supports local farmers. But the private sector can fight back, costing the paper a fortune in litigation, and whatever is left in ad revenue. That's the reason I don't think it would work.