ADVERTISING USED TO BE what paid for journalism in America. Car dealerships and movie theaters brought us local newspapers and TVs; clubs and restaurants underwrote the alternative weeklies where I got my start; classified ads paid to send a reporter to your local city council meeting or state Capitol. Liquor and fashion brands brought us fat magazines with deeply reported stories wedged in among the lipstick ads.
But, as anyone who’s picked up their skinny hometown newspaper lately can tell, that’s over. The vast majority of advertising has moved and . But everyone knows that relying on advertising to pay for the news is ultimately a house of cards. The math just doesn’t work. (Just one data point: At going rates, an article that 100,000 people read will bring in about $1,000 in revenue. How’s that math going to work for investigative reporting—or simply covering local politics for that matter?)
