As publishers both large and small have struggled to generate advertising revenue, the collective media industry has moved towards a more direct financial relationship between publications and readers with subscriptions.
It turns out people will actually pay for news. The New York Times has about 3 million paying readers. The Athletic, a subscription publication for sports news, reportedly has over 100,000 subscribers (and received $20M in funding earlier this year). Investigative tech news site The Information is well-known in Silicon Valley, with subscribers paying $399 for an annual subscription. Even Medium is pushing towards a subscription-based model after taking a dramatic left turn away from the ad business last year. Now, their subscriber base has reportedly grown by 160 percent.
Several startups have also cropped up to help anyone create paywalled content. Substack (a YC-backed company led by the former CTO of Kik) makes it super simple to create paid email newsletters. Revue is an easy-to-use publishing platform for email that also lets you charge subscribers.