In 2021, Ariel Zirulnick predicted in NiemanLab that news outlets would begin to question “both the ethics and the efficacy” of the paywalls they put up against their customers. She mentioned that many news sources saw success in audiences paying for their paywalls due to the urgency of receiving quality news during Covid, but this urgency has declined as vaccination numbers rise, and Americans will begin to cancel their news subscriptions. She argued that in order to keep their audiences, news sources need to begin to connect more strongly to their communities. Going out and interviewing the “real people” of the community, rather than the “local power brokers they’re used to interviewing.”
Ariel predicted that if news sources build their relationships with their communities, that their communities will fight to keep them afloat. That what these news outlets lose in membership fees, they’ll make up for in donations and sponsorships – community thanks for being part of a solution. “The journalists will realize that each time a person chooses community over convenience, it’s a tiny act of civic participation — and that they can design their journalism to help more people take those first steps.”
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