Comment by nottorp
1 hour ago
Whatever the solution is they'd better get to it because I'm not going to subscribe to every site that wants 20/month just because it shows once on HN or in search results.
1 hour ago
Whatever the solution is they'd better get to it because I'm not going to subscribe to every site that wants 20/month just because it shows once on HN or in search results.
Your comment illustrates the tension very well, I think. Businesses don't generally want customers who aren't their core market; those people though, often want one slice of a business's offerings. This can lead to big distractions for businesses, as putting in the effort to serve the wrong market is a waste of time. The publishing industry really fell for this when the internet became widespread; they dreamed of huge audiences and big ad numbers. Turns out, that was not a model that worked, at all. The model that works is focusing on serving a niche, and charging a subscription fee, so you can get predictable revenue.
> so you can get predictable revenue
That for some reason makes me think of those sites where you can insta subscribe online but you need to call and wait on hold for 6 hours to cancel :)
You know what's missing from this model? Back a million years ago when we all had pet dinosaurs, you could pay for a magazine issue on the street if it seemed interesting. And maybe if you found enough issues interesting you subscribed.
Where's that issue you can try out now?