A recent study claimed 75% of America’s leading newspapers are behind paywalls. KFI-AM 640 morning host Bill Handel believes it’s a mixed bag.
The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism revealed that paywalls stop millions of Americans from accessing news both nationally and locally.
While discussing the findings on his morning show, Handel noted that, on one hand, that’s a bad thing.
“What paywalls do is get in the way of informing the public. And that’s what journalism is about,” said Handel. “It is a tough one.”
However, he added that paywalls are an important differentiator between credible and not credible outlets.
“The internet…is free. We’ve always been able to Google for free. You look at Wikipedia for free. News isn’t free. Not from the major news outlets,” said Handel. “If you go to CNN.com, NewYorkTimes.com, LATimes.com, you’re going to see the pop-ups where you have to subscribe and of course, the subscription is always the same.
“I’ll tell you what you can get for free: crazy conspiracy theory crap. That, you can get for free. Can you get hard news, objective news? Not as much. So paywalls create a two-tiered system. Paywalls for news, you get fact-based information credible for people willing to pay for it. And then way less reliable, at times crazy, stuff for everyone else.”
Bill Handel concluded by admitting he subscribes to the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal.
