The Guardian begging for donations, really?

rafark

rafark

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So this week I came across a Guardian article and was surprised to find out they were asking for donations 'a la Wikipedia.

It'd be ok if not for the fact they already have four big ads! So you either show ads or ask for money but not both. As a for-profit major publication it makes them look very greedy and cheap.

Take the non-profits like Wikipedia or Wayback Machine: they show no ads, their donation period is once a year and their services are far more useful than those of The Guardian.

Donations to a big, consolidated, for-profit, full of ads and partnerships media website damages their reputation in my opinion.

What'ya think?
 
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rafark said:
So this week I came across a Guardian article and was surprised to found out they were asking for donations 'a la Wikipedia.

It'd be ok if not for the fact they already have four big ads! So you either show ads or ask for money but not both. As a for-profit major publication it makes them look very greedy and cheap.

Take the non-profits like Wikipedia or Wayback Machine: they show no ads, their donation period is once a year and their services are far more useful than those of The Guardian.

Donations to a big, consolidated, for-profit, full of ads and partnerships media website damages their reputation in my opinion.

What'ya think?
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Better than being a "fake news" site.:oops:
 
I also think it is bad to ask donation while placing ad on it. But why do they care unless they are making money from it.
 
Stop reading it if the thought of paying journalists upsets you too much.
 
GoTRooT said:
Stop reading it if the thought of paying journalists upsets you too much.
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I'm not upset at all. I'm surprised. Not sure its better or worse than charging for content, though.
 
I guess as a newspaper that posts its paid content to a website which is now more popular than its physical product it will become worse over time as sales drop and stop paying for journalists and authors and eventually die then we can all go check out the daily mail online which I am sure has some news in between zoom lens shots of celebrity children "all grown up" or some nobody in a bikini and all will be fine.
 
If they are having a net loss that will impact their business, then it is understandable, and frankly, I think that is the case, and I'm pretty sure many other answers here will agree to this. Websites are easily overtaking newspapers, and most of them don't have any subscriptions (unlike newspaper subscriptions), but they do have ads. Most of us; however, have ad blocker; therefore, the internet is destroying the sales of newspapers and it's understandable. "Desperate times calls for desperate measures", if my pride wasn't that high (and it isn't), I would do the same and ask for donations just so that my business won't sink.
 
The guardian looses a ton of money because of their editorial position and until very recently their insistence on using berliner size for the newspaper.
 
The Guardian is also one of the few broadsheets (if not the last) that has not gone down the paywall route.

I actually quite like reading the Guardian, despite it being a historically left-wing editorial newspaper. They have done a lot for journalism with their exposes over the last 5 or so years.
 
Not a fan of any newspaper so I have no sympathy personally
 
Asif WILSON Khan said:
They have been asking for donations for some time. A lot of UK News sites have put up a paywall and require a subscription to read full or more than one article.
https://encrypted.google.com/search?q=news+international+paywall
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paywall
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Sephrata said:
The Guardian is also one of the few broadsheets (if not the last) that has not gone down the paywall route.

I actually quite like reading the Guardian, despite it being a historically left-wing editorial newspaper. They have done a lot for journalism with their exposes over the last 5 or so years.
Click to expand...

I've give it a thought and realized paywalls are actually a stronger trend than I thought. I'll add a paywal feature to my wp theme's roadmap. Not sure it's as popular or useful to smaller blogs, though. Seems to be a kind of membership site.

Prepare for the New Paywall Era
 
Billy Batts said:
@Zwielicht I don't see the making money value in this, kick it to the lounge with your magical boot.
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Kicked to the lounge with my magical boots!
latest
 
Yeah I think it's bad form as well but the thing is the media business model is largely broken and, just as video rental stores went the way of the dodo, so will print media. So they are definitely scrabbling for money and dealing with the pivot towards digital that is needed.
 
I feel the way way about this and the Philip Defranco patreon situation... If there are persons out there who enjoy the content so much that they don't mind paying the creator(s) then it's not my business to complain... Personally, I'm not inclined to line the pockets of business owners (who are probably better off than me) with my hard earned cash for content I can get for free...unless it's a non-profit.
 
Billy Batts said:
@Zwielicht I don't see the making money value in this, kick it to the lounge with your magical boot.
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What? A thread about how money is made doesn't belong in the money making section? Nice logic you have.

knightsb78 said:
Yeah I think it's bad form as well but the thing is the media business model is largely broken and, just as video rental stores went the way of the dodo, so will print media. So they are definitely scrabbling for money and dealing with the pivot towards digital that is needed.
Click to expand...

The atlantic has a good article on this:


https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/11/media-apocalypse/546935/
 
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rafark said:
What? A thread about how money is made doesn't belong in the money making section? Nice logic you have.
Click to expand...
The Guardian begging for donations is a lounge topic unless you wanted to discuss how to implement a donations feature and beg on your site like The Guardian.
 
Zwielicht said:
The Guardian begging for donations is a lounge topic unless you wanted to discuss how to implement a donations feature and beg on your site like The Guardian.
Click to expand...

The intended discussion was about revenue models and how they can potentially impact a brand's image. Which led us to other growing models such as paywalls. All due to the current state of online advertisment. I was actually going to post the thread in the ORM forum. This is an on-topic discusson, but whatever.
 
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