Comments on: Hughes’ New Republic has 44,000 subscribers, thinks Twitter beats Facebook for news http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/12/new-republic-has-45000-subscribers-twitter-better-than-facebook-for-news-chris-hughes/ The economics of digital content Fri, 13 Dec 2013 18:54:38 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Jeff http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/12/new-republic-has-45000-subscribers-twitter-better-than-facebook-for-news-chris-hughes/#comment-203483 Wed, 03 Apr 2013 19:28:00 +0000 http://paidcontent.org/?p=224631#comment-203483 Ditto — I was a long time reader of the TNR via their website. Plain and boring was perfect, as I was there for the (gasp) CONTENT!!!! Yet now thanks to another egotistical 1% with time on his hands (it must be dull to count money all day), their new restrictive paywall (eight free clicks a month) has turned me off them. Sure, I understand if one wanted to read their archives or longform articles that appear in the magazine, but catching up on the world’s news via a few of their daily ‘blog post’ isn’t worth $35 a year. Sure, for Hughes and his 45,000 subscribers who according to the site make upwards of $100K a year, it’s the price of two trips to Starbucks, but for the rest of us, it’s any number of monthly bills and expenses.

It’s ironic, someone as wealthy as Hughes even needs to think about making a ‘profit’ from TNR. As I imagine the interest alone on his bank account, is enough to fund the magzine for the entire year (and thusly as long as he or anyone else is alive to read it).

Good work Mr. Hughes limiting access to news and opinion. Oh that’s right, in your mind you’re part of the new ‘gatekeepers’. Carry on keeping the ‘barbarians’ ignorant!

]]> By: Paul http://paidcontent.org/2013/02/12/new-republic-has-45000-subscribers-twitter-better-than-facebook-for-news-chris-hughes/#comment-199748 Wed, 13 Feb 2013 00:32:31 +0000 http://paidcontent.org/?p=224631#comment-199748 One fewer now. After subscribing for 15 years I just canceled when I saw their artsy redesign. New Republic’s design used to be too boring, but it was good for communicating information quickly. The new design indicates that the publication has elevated “style” to the same importance as the underlying content.

Bringing Lewis back, and keeping Morosov in there, won’t overcome the annoyance of dealing with indecipherable headlines, columns broken by artwork and then pages with nothing but disconnected photographs that add little to stories.

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