A beautiful app / website, that functions perfectly, and is basically a netflix for real journalism... The company itseld would be the one doing the journalism, and providing the app. Similary to how netflix has "netflix originals".
Payed service.
a) I'm describing a video service. Not text. I think that makes a huge difference.
b) How do you explain Apple News? Personally I have no idea if they're profitable but they seem to be betting on news subscriptions being worth while.
The answer to that is government regulation - it must be mandated that terminating a service must be at least as accessible and fast as the most accessible/fast way of signing up.
Not just for newspapers, but also for other services - a particularly common target of complaints are fitness studios.
I felt that it was good value, this particular solo journalist did a ton of investigative research and posted almost every day.
So, I think there's a business model for it if you can get enough subs to sustain yourself.
Obviously there's space for investigative journalism like what, e.g. ProPublica is doing, but if it's just "news", I'd rather get it from an individual backed by a strong reputation than an institution backed by a strong reputation, unless the journalist has a useful on-the-ground insight.
News/Jouralism = Reporting with as little opinion as possible. I.E. what/why/how/where/etc from boots on the ground...
Editorial / Substack = Opinion pieces.
ProPublica is amazing in terms of doing journalism and funding it in a new way.
I agree with your definitions. But if I'm choosing between Editorial "news" from WaPo/NYT vs. someone independently covering the same events on their Substack, I'd be more interested in the individual on Substack if I trust them from previous experience as an intelligent, informed, good-faith writer.
WaPo/NYT I don't know the individual writers very well, and I don't really have much faith in the intentions of the editorial board...
Ya, but you have to remember Substack has no fact checkers, no standards, no peer review... NYT/WAPO are not perfect, but they have those in place. And, such as in the case of the podcast earlier this year they eventually get to the right place and fire the team that blatantly lied.
Reuters is probably a good source if you are looking for pure news, or apnews.
Example: Vogue magazine (US) is incredibly expensive to produce (photograph, report, layout, print, deliver), but the annual subscription price is only 40 USD. How is that possible? (The September issue is legendary each year and weighs just shy of a metric tonne!) Every major fashion brand has huge multiple page inserts in each issue. (I guess half of each issue is just fashion ads -- but artfully done!)
To state the obvious: Good media isn't cheap!