Kind of a false dichotomy. There are ways to do media without charging for the content. Also hard to claim we're essential for democracy but only available to those who can pay.

Source: guy who's been running a free nonprofit news outlet for 10 years

April 08, 2026 - 15:12 UTC

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"I got mine, it worked for me, pull yourself up by your bootstraps"

Go back to Twitter.
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How do you do it? Serious question, I would like to not have paywalls. Where does the money come from?
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It helps that we're local and small, so we don't need millions of dollars, and our pitch to sponsors is less about journalism and more about community. I think at this point, to run the day-to-day, we're at about 40% foundation support, 40% advertising/sponsorship and 20% individual donations.
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Historically, advertising. Traditionally high quality news *was* free, or heavily subsidized. Before the rise of google/meta part of almost every advertising dollar paid for some sort of news. Every dividend they pay represents money diverted from the public good
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Also what's the nonprofit news site, not seeing a link in your profile
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you're charging sponsors for the content which works until it doesn't (source, I have been doing this for a long time and none of the sponsor-funded things from my earliest days still exist unless the sponsor is a very well funded trust from a billionaire)
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Right, sponsors can be fickle so if you’re relying on sponsors you have to be nimble and able to pivot.
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