For the last year, I’ve written a newsletter for Kottke.org, one of the last of the independent blogs still going. It’s funded by site memberships that support the main site and all of its subprojects, and by my personal Patreon. There is no paywall. Everything at Kottke.org is free for members and non-members alike.
Here’s the picture as generally agreed upon: Ads are still alive and well, but the collapse and consolidation of the ad market means ads alone can’t support media companies anymore, whether they’re big like The New York Times or small like Kottke.org.
There’s a puritanical argument that says ads have failed media — they bring out media’s worse impulses and might be inherently bad. The only way to break with the ad model is to break with it completely and sell media like a product. Make readers pay for content. If they don’t pay for it, don’t give it to them. Only when media companies are wholly accountable to their subscribers can you fix what’s wrong with media. Big companies need paywalls; little ones need exclusive subscribers.
Kottke.org, obviously, does not work this way. It has ads, although those are a very small part of the site and a shrinking part of the revenue. It has members, but very, very little is directed only to them; right now, they get some behind-the-scenes stuff and a few early previews and experiments. Stuff that only real fans even want. The site, the tweets, the RSS feed, and everything else the site’s produced or ever will produce is available to everyone whether they’re a member or not.
I call this “unlocking the commons,” and it’s the same approach I’ve taken with my Patreon and newsletter. Fans support the person and the work. But it’s not a transaction, a fee for service. It’s a contribution that benefits everyone. Free-riders aren’t just welcome; free-riding is the point. This, I think, is key to understanding the psychology of patronage.
Let’s say you’re buying a book. Books aren’t perfect commodities, but they’re still commodities. As a shopper, you’re trying to get as much value for your book as you can for your money. If I can get the book cheaper and faster from retailer A(mazon) than retailer B(arnes & Noble), most of the time, that’s what I’m going to do.
If I’m skeptical of A, and prefer to support B or C(ity bookstore of my choice), I’m not strictly speaking in a purchasing relationship anymore, but something closer to a patronage one. I don’t just want my money to buy an object; I want it to support institutions and individuals I like, and I want it to support the common good.
This is one of the weird things about patronage. As a consumer, your first thought is to your own benefit. As a patron, it’s to the good of your beneficiary. Likewise, as an artisan supported by patronage, you tend to think more about what’s best for your patrons and audience than you do yourself.
For instance, when Patreon changed its fee structure in 2017, I thought about it on two levels. First, it seemed really bad for patrons, slightly less bad for beneficiaries, and clearly helped out Patreon more than either group. As a customer of Patreon — they’re the ones I give my money to — I felt like I was being ripped off. I was being asked for more money without getting more in return. But as a patron, my first thought was: Does this help the people I pledge money to each month? And as a beneficiary, I thought: How does this affect the people who pledge money to me?
In both cases, I wanted what was best for that other person. I wanted them to be getting the full value of the transaction. The only time it was about me was when I thought about my relationship with Patreon — which is completely different.
Please note that this is not fuzzy-headed idealism or just sentiment: This is as concrete and comprehensive as it gets. It’s economic thinking that recognizes that goods don’t just exist to be used up, but are objects of labor produced by and for members of a commonwealth. The truth of the transaction is in the whole.
The most economically powerful thing you can do is to buy something for your own enjoyment that also improves the world. This has always been the value proposition of journalism and art. It’s a nonexclusive good that’s best enjoyed nonexclusively.
Anyways. This is a prediction for 2019 and beyond: The most powerful and interesting media model will remain raising money from members who don’t just permit but insist that the product be given away for free. The value comes not just what they’re buying, but who they’re buying it from and who gets to enjoy it.
The bigger those two pools get — the bigger the membership, and the bigger the audience — the better it gets for everyone. This is why we need more tools, so more people can try to do it. PBS as a service.
Now, I’m not so sure how this works when applied to enormous venture-funded or shareholder-governed sites like BuzzFeed or The Guardian. Those ventures have inherently different dynamics at play and different stakeholders to answer to. But for independent sites like ours, I think it’s the only model that makes sense — that goes with the grain of the web, rather than fighting it by trying to lock everything down in a ransom model or bet on some third-party savior to come through with funding. Readers and writers, working together at personal scale: That’s the only way this all makes sense.
It’s not quite socialized art. Mutualist art, maybe. Proudhon probably would have thought it was pretty cool. So would the Florentines, arch-capitalists as they were. And it might not work. But so far, it’s the only model I’ve found worth trying.
Tim Carmody writes the weekly newsletter Noticing on Kottke.org, where an earlier version of this prediction appeared.
Millie Tran There is no magic — you’ve got this
J. Siguru Wahutu Think 2018 was bad? Wait until you see 2019
Colleen Shalby Representation becomes more than a talking point
Patrick Butler Measuring impact will increase audience trust
Victor Pickard We will finally confront systemic market failure
Simon Galperin After capitalism’s fire, journalism’s secondary succession
Pia Frey You can’t solve a crisis without treating it as a crisis
Jesse Holcomb We’ll get better at making the case for local journalism
Efrat Nechushtai Journalism wants to be your friend, not your teacher
Salem Solomon Correcting our corrections
Claire Wardle Forget deepfakes: Misinformation is showing up in our most personal online spaces
Lauren Katz Community becomes a core newsroom value
Mike Isaac The old exit doors for digital media companies are closing
Brian Moritz The subscription-pocalypse is about to hit
Joanne McNeil Building a digital hospice
Monique Judge Committing to the truth, calling out lies
A.J. Bauer The coming splintering of conservative media
Ståle Grut A new dawn for 3D tech in journalism
Dheerja Kaur A focus on problems, not platforms
Jared Newman AI-generated fakes launch a software arms race
Elizabeth Dunbar Local reporters reflect on what’s not important
Dave Burdick Seeing our blind spots
Meredith Artley Huge demand for…anything but politics
Jim Friedlich Meet Citizen Kane 2.0
Zizi Papacharissi Old interface, say hello to the new interface
Candis Callison Learn from Indigenous journalists on covering climate change
Frank Mungeam Tonight at 11: News, sports, and climate change
Cherian George Fake news wins in Asia
Justin Kosslyn Text hits a tipping point
Annie Rudd A more intimate aesthetic of politics — on Insta
Renan Borelli Developing loyalty means developing your talent
Geetika Rudra The year of actionable (local) journalism
Taylor Lorenz Personal branding is more powerful than ever
Adam Thomas In Europe, foundations invest in news
Carolina Guerrero Spanish-language audio blows up
Becca Aaronson From bridge roles to product thinkers
Ernst-Jan Pfauth Readers are only getting started
Matthew Pressman The battle over objectivity intensifies
Carl Bialik Fatigued news consumers will pay more for less news
Sue Cross Return of the water cooler
Pablo Boczkowski Reimagining the media for post-institutional times
Ariel Zirulnick Participation gets professional
Kevin D. Grant A year to embrace journalism as public service
Andrew Ramsammy The great re-pivot to audio
Peter Cunliffe-Jones The focus of misinformation debates shifts south
Hossein Derakhshan The news is dying, but journalism will not — and should not
Mandy Jenkins Fight the urge to run away from social media
Andrew Donohue Voting rights becomes the new climate change
Mike Rispoli and Craig Aaron Government funds local news — and that’s a good thing
Jonathan Gill Publishers build a common tech platform together
Cindy Royal For journalism curriculum to change, its faculty needs disruption
Heather Bryant We are responsible for how we use our power
Axie Navas The traffic hunt, CMS battle, and magazine identity crises loom
Craig Newmark The end of “loudspeakers for liars”
Alberto Cairo A year of uncertainty and confidence
Eric Nuzum The year of the DIY podcast network
Tyler Fisher This is journalism’s do-or-die moment
Mike Caulfield Ditch the media literacy cynicism and get to work
Marie Shanahan Newsrooms take the comments sections back from platforms
Mandy Velez Putting the social back in social media
Sarah Alvarez Simplify and redistribute
Eric Ulken The year you actually start to like your CMS
Logan Molyneux Seeing social media for what it is
Julia Rubin Meeting people where they are
Soo Oh Just showing our work isn’t enough
Angilee Shah The year news orgs say “yes” to real leaders
Rick Berke The year of loyalty
Joe Amditis Give the audience a seat at the table
Mariana Moura Santos From pageviews to impact
Glyn Mottershead and Martin Chorley When a tech company pulls the plug on your story
Michael Grant More newsrooms experiment their way to success
Kristen Muller Local news fails — in a good way
Shalabh Upadhyay A culture clash on India’s growing Internet
Greg Emerson Power to the user
Jonas Kaiser Catching up with “Neuland”
Tim Carmody Unlocking the commons
Jeremy Gilbert AI finally becomes helpful
Moreno Cruz Osório Damaged credibility and a new threat in Brazil
Peter Bale Venture capital runs out of patience
Laura E. Davis More access, but not that kind
Christa Scharfenberg and Vickie Baranetsky The year of the lawsuit
Masuma Ahuja Make foreign coverage less foreign
Sarah Stonbely Mapping the local news ecosystem — with scale but detail
Amy King We should listen to the kids (especially on Instagram)
Nico Gendron Reaching Generation Z beyond the coasts
Dan Shanoff Bet on sports gambling
Matt Waite “I went to Node.js because I wished to live deliberately”
Shannon McGregor More bogus embedded tweets in our stories
Alyssa Zeisler We expand what (and how and who) we serve
Sarah Marshall A return to destination journalism
Catalina Albeanu Being responsible for what we don’t know
Rasmus Kleis Nielsen A long, slow slog, with no one coming to the rescue
Jenée Desmond-Harris It finally sinks in that some people aren’t white
LaToya Drake Listen up: New stories, new storytellers
Matt Skibinski Quality and reliability are the new currencies for publishers
Robert Hernandez Racists and sexists get replaced
Whitney Phillips Our information systems aren’t broken — they’re working as intended
Robin Kwong Tech shouldn’t be the only field pollinating “news nerds”
Raney Aronson-Rath We learn “digital” doesn’t have to mean “short”
Bill Adair Another year fighting Trump’s falsehoods
Josh Schwartz A pullback from platforms and a focus on product
Jean Friedman Rudovsky Cross-newsroom collaborations strengthen communities
John Saroff The pivot to reader revenue’s unintended consequences
Umbreen Bhatti The story doesn’t end for the people we quote
Carrie Brown-Smith Advocating a healthy civic life is no journalistic crime
Michael Rain The year of the culturally relevant curator
Jack Riley Facebook refugees, from ad revenue to news habits
Tushar Banerjee Interactive ads will be the new face of display advertising
Amy Schmitz Weiss Local news isn’t where you thought it was
Nathalie Malinarich Video — yes, video
Heather Chaplin Agree we’re partisan — for the democratic system
Kawandeep Virdee Media wants to take care of you
Callie Schweitzer The rise of the conveners
Francesco Zaffarano Towards a rethinking of journalism on social media
Almar Latour Reported facts, weaponized in service of action
Simon Rogers Data journalism becomes a global field
Celeste LeCompte Local news needs local conversation to survive
Juleyka Lantigua Podcasting battles East Coast bias
Elite Truong What do we owe the next generation?
Adam B. Ellick Video forensic reporting goes mainstream — and local
Betsy O'Donovan and Melody Kramer The most beautiful sentence in 2019 is “No.”
John Biewen Podcasts keep getting better
Ben Smith The pendulum starts to swing back
Nisha Chittal The homepage makes a comeback
Ben Werdmuller The platform tide is turning
Renée Kaplan Our future could lie within our own organizations
Francesco Marconi The year of iterative journalism
Mario García The rise of content “pilots”
Elva Ramirez News — but make it cinematic
Steve Grove A reckoning for tech’s work with news
Zuzanna Ziomecka News leadership gets an overdue upgrade
Darryl Holliday Let’s talk about power (yours)
Libby Bawcombe Haikus of the news
Gabriel Snyder Journalism doesn’t fit well in a funnel
Joel Konopo Influencers become the new liberated power in Africa
Tshepo Tshabalala Ahead of African elections, unlock partnerships with fact-checkers
Alexis Lloyd & Matt Boggie The year product leads media
Kjerstin Thorson Time to get mad about information inequality (again)
Charo Henríquez Pivot to journalism
Nicholas Jackson More transparency around newsroom decisions
M. Scott Havens Time to swing for the fences
Rachel Davis Mersey Local news goes minimalist
Angèle Christin Algorithms and the reflexive turn
Rebecca Lee Sanchez We are all actors in the running rampant of political theater
Tamar Charney Seriously: What do you do for people?
Heba Aly The rise of international nonprofit news
Errin Haines Say it with me: Racism
John Garrett You can’t raise prices forever
Chase Davis We can acknowledge what we don’t know
Zainab Khan Publishers whose products can stand up to social media giants will win
Jeff Chin We detox from Chartbeat
Steve Henn Smart speakers get smarter
Emma Carew Grovum The year of the loyal reader
Thomas Hanitzsch The rise of tribal journalism
Bill Grueskin Toward a symphony model for local news
Ole Reißmann The rise of vertical storytelling
Rubina Madan Fillion Fighting the reality of deepfakes
Nikki Usher Three ways national media will further undermine trust
Frank Chimero Leave the phone at home and put news on your wrist
Rishad Patel A design system for responsible publishing
Talia Stroud Engaging people across lines of difference
P. Kim Bui The misfits become the bosses
Matt Karolian Publishers come to terms with being Facebook’s enablers
Rachel Glickhouse Newsrooms will prioritize audience needs
Johannes Klingebiel We all grow hooves
Winny de Jong Data journalism goes undercover
Stephanie Edgerly It’s time to understand the un-audience
Alexandra Svokos Good luck convincing us millennials to pay
Adam Smith Platforms will have to help rebuild trust in news
Kate Myers Journalism continues to be bad for democracy
Seema Yasmin We will create our own spaces
Jake Shapiro Podcasting is media’s slow food movement
Ernie Smith The year we step back from the platform
Cory Bergman Journalism as a technology service
Joshua P. Darr The nationalization of political news will accelerate
Kelsey Proud Journalism becomes the escape
Elisabeth Goodridge Yes, they signed up — but our job’s not over
Seth C. Lewis The gap between journalism and research is too wide
Jonathan Stray More algorithmic accountability reporting, and a lot of it will be meh
An Xiao Mina The death of consensus, not the death of truth
Don Day Timewalls and other reader revenue experiments
Kainaz Amaria We consider who’s behind the camera
Kyra Darnton A shift to depth in video
Rebecca Searles From silos to Swiss Army knife teams
Linda Solomon Wood The year of the climate reporter
Rodney Gibbs A bright — and young — year for audio
Borja Bergareche Sainz de los Terreros Entering a more balanced era
Cristi Hegranes A year to invest in the security of local journalists
Alexandra Borchardt Newsrooms need to build trust with their journalists, not just the audience
Jennifer Dargan You don’t build diversity through one-off training sessions
Jesse Brown Canada’s subsidy for news backfires
Stefanie Murray Local news wakes up and starts collaborating
Julie Posetti The year of the fight back
Ruth Palmer and Benjamin Toff From news fatigue to news avoidance
Steve Myers From trying to cover it all to covering what matters
Mat Yurow Content competition from the tech companies
Elizabeth Jensen Going where the Acela can’t take you
Sue Robinson Reporters go on the offensive
Reyhan Harmanci Selling more stories to Hollywood
Andrea Faye Hart Doing less harm, not just more good
Gideon Lichfield Goodbye attention economy, we’ll miss you
Knight Foundation A year of local collaboration
Elizabeth Bramson-Boudreau A more sincere definition of “community”
Manoush Zomorodi Tech will do for information overload what it did for mindfulness