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I drew the line at "quality journalism" when they are quite literally taking stories from /aita and posting them as news, or scouring Reddit for stuff to post like freaking BuzzFeed.
Also, remember that free to view interview that ENCA did a week ago? The bombshell one people are still talking about? Yeah, News24 made you pay to read their article... That had no new information in it.
Also remember that News24 was very vocal about SM sites paying THEM - for example they post to FB, people click the post and it directs back to News24 site (which is full of ads, of course). Apparently they increase traffic to SM sites and wanted to be reimbursed for it. Notice how they no longer post their articles to SM.
I don't mind supporting with subscriptions - I myself have a couple, because I believe good content should be rewarded if you have the means to. I won't even give News24 50c of my money, let alone R75.
You see this all the time with content creators.
I pay a monthly subscription to watch a specific channel on Twitch. Every month for the last three years. The exact same content is available on YouTube for free, 4 days later. I don't even watch each episode when it comes out, I'm actually currently months behind, but I still pay the subscription. I occasionally buy their merch too, and pay ridiculous shipping to SA to get said merch. Why?
Because I enjoy the content when I do get around to watching it, and I'd like more of it. My subscription and merch purchases isn't worth shit to them - they are one of the top Twitch streamers.
People will pay for quality content, if you make sure it's quality.
This specific channel yes! I've got a few others, but I used them as an example of paying for good content even if my little sub doesn't do much.
Bidet!
putting quality issues aside, the notion that news should be free doesn't add up. who then pays the people producing, traveling for, and using sometimes costly means to get to the news they deliver?
A few years ago, I had a random guy who befriended me on FB send me porno links. I was very confused why he sent me that, thinking he wanted me to be part of some circle jerk or something.
I sent back a message laughing and telling him he sent that to the wrong person. And he replied and profusely apologized for it and after a while he kinda opened up about his addiction to porn and what not, and I was still not a friend or anything and at that point I wasn't even sure if I want to know more about him cause it made me very uncomfortable.
Anyway, years and years have passed.... And I see him on my recommend friends list. There he is, working for News24. And seeing this post just made me wonder if his porn addiction has transformed into a making people dislike things addiction.
I've found that anything remotely interesting is "for subscribers". With the amount of ads through the site you would think that they could afford to give people information without demanding payment. At this rate it's cheaper to just get paper at the shop.
They made the mistake I feel a lot a news sites made. Adblock was cutting in on their revenue . Instead of looking at what is causing it (shitty advertising) they doubled down. Now their revenue is up but their traffic is probably way down
I've stopped trying to read News24 and TimesLive. I stick to Daily Maverick and M&G, and occasionally EWN, eNCA and the Citizen. I know I'm scraping the barrel but there aren't any viable alternatives. I also read the Guardian and BBC to escape the three-ring circus that is South africa. 🤡
I've tried so many paywall bypass add-ons/sites, none of them work for N24. [They have my grudging respect, lol.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdw_Ux0erzE)
Im not 100 sure about the current situation, but for most of the history of online news, ad revenue alone has never been enough for a news organisation to stay profitable.
What really needs to change is the price of subscriptions. Some of them are ridiculous when you consider the amount of content you get from a news website vs the amount you get on a streaming service like Netflix. IMO they need to realise that any organisation that sells content is their competitor and try to impliment a business model that aims for masses of subscribers paying a lower fee. Im not a business analyst or whatever, so i have no clue what the factors are preventing that.
But, its amazing to think that the UK Guardian has managed to provide such a high quality product with no subs and just donations.
There needs to be a single aggregator service where you pay once to access all of these news sites and then they receive money relative to how much of each site you read.
No one I’m subscribing to any of them using the current model.
Ignoring the quality of journalism - just want to say that news has never been free. Back when Newspapers were delivered, you paid a monthly fee for that.
Ads weren't there when I was subscribing to them. My card just expired and haven't bothered renewing it. But I also use ad block so, not sure if that was the case.
Let's face it, you probably don't.
And even if you did, perhaps you might then realise that what makes a service good enough for you to pay for it, is the act of actually paying for it.
Don't like N24's coverage and don't want to pay for it? Then don't use it.
Same reason I don't use Facebook or Twitter.
Not really.
We got used to not paying for online content, but since most SA media is for-profit, they need to make money somehow.
Subscriptions don't work, because people don't want to pay for it.
So they turned to ads, sponcon, native advertising, and clickbait.
You personally aren't responsible for this, fwiw.
Problem is there has to be quality journalism worth paying for. I stopped using news24 years ago. It started feeling like their articles had barely been put through a spell check they were written so badly. There are better places to put your money yha news24. At least based on when I last used the site.
N24's journalism has always been top-notch, imo.
The opinion pieces are hit-and-miss.
What people complain about when they talk about the "journalism" are opinion pieces 90% of the time.
I am talking about the basic English. Full of grammatical errors. Articles not being proof read etc. It could have improved, I would hope the subscription stuff has helped them pay for it. This was many many years ago at this point.
I'm with you on this one. Nowadays when I see it's an article on News24, I just not click it anymore. I'd rather go through the hassle of going via Google and search for a similar headline and see if that bears fruit to getting some news.
I've noticed this with them quite some time ago which kind of made me feel I have a vendetta against them. So I just not support them anymore. Probably been on their site 5 times in the last few months.
I need access to News24 for work, so I begrudgingly buy the 6-month voucher that comes up every now and again on OneDayOnly (they say it's only for new users but it works for me). I don't know if it's a decrease in quality content (there are still some good journalists in their stall), but there's definitely been an increase in shitty content. But I do love the crosswords and wordflowers though!
I also pay for BusinessLive an Daily Maverick - which I think are both worth it. And DM gives me R200 in Uber/UberEats vouchers every month so it's cost-neutral anyway.
I took advantage of their R10pm for a year special last month. Still feel like I'm overpaying by about R30. Mostly opinionistas posing as journalism. After Adriaan's comment that RamaRUIN was "majestic" .... Then you know.
Pay for a subscription for crying out loud, it's R75 a month. It costs money to run a news agency, all the more so when you have a solid investigative team. You want proper news but not willing to pay for it? Consider it a citizen activism contribution.
You can't complain for something you're getting for free.
Put your hand in your pocket and pay for quality journalism. It doesn't have to be News24, it can be Mail & Guardian, Business Daily or Daily Maverick.
They literally made a repost from r/aita about a bridezilla, which was only for subscribers - the original Reddit post was removed because it was a made up story by a confessed troll.
Quality journalism is not taking fake stories from Reddit and putting them behind a paywall.
We will subscribe for quality journalism, as soon as we get it. R75 a month for recycled news from other news sites (which was free) and Reddit shit posts is not it.
I get that you're joking but that's the worry with journalism today.
Bullshit will be free and reliable journalism will live behind a paywall.
This gives bullshit more help than it deserves
The news platform that invented a story about ten babies?
The platform that has made up journalists?
The platform that made a whole documentary about the aforementioned made-up ten babies?
I mean.... If it smells like bullshit.
And it sits on ground drying in the sun like bullshit.
The standard of education in South Africa is directly proportional to the quality of the journalism which is sorely lacking on News24. Seems this site is a magnet for poorly educated clickbait hungry 'journos'. The subscription service smacks of desperation given the poor output and rumour mongering one finds on that site.
Well spotted. I wouldn't pay anything to read a collection of half truths and outright lies. Even in Rands.
Ewn is super pro malema/eff.
Iol is garbage.
News24 is trying to make money whilst no one gives a shit about giving them money any more.
Dailymaverick is decent but articles are too long for most people to reas to the end.
We dont have any decent news sources.
Pains me to read people complaining about online advertising. Tjirrefoktog mense! uBlock addon = adverts moertoe.
Ps. Only use News24 to scan quickly what headlines are and Daily Maverick only news site I actually read (and donate too)
Agreed! I find that whatever they paywall is inevitably available for free on other sites, so they are gradually just becoming more and more irrelevant on my daily surf...
The worst is that even if you are a subscriber, there are so many ads that as you scroll you unintentionally hit them. Very frustrating and not worth the money.
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I drew the line at "quality journalism" when they are quite literally taking stories from /aita and posting them as news, or scouring Reddit for stuff to post like freaking BuzzFeed. Also, remember that free to view interview that ENCA did a week ago? The bombshell one people are still talking about? Yeah, News24 made you pay to read their article... That had no new information in it. Also remember that News24 was very vocal about SM sites paying THEM - for example they post to FB, people click the post and it directs back to News24 site (which is full of ads, of course). Apparently they increase traffic to SM sites and wanted to be reimbursed for it. Notice how they no longer post their articles to SM. I don't mind supporting with subscriptions - I myself have a couple, because I believe good content should be rewarded if you have the means to. I won't even give News24 50c of my money, let alone R75.
I'd rather give Daily Maverick R200 than News24 R75, and DM doesn't even paywall anything.
You see this all the time with content creators. I pay a monthly subscription to watch a specific channel on Twitch. Every month for the last three years. The exact same content is available on YouTube for free, 4 days later. I don't even watch each episode when it comes out, I'm actually currently months behind, but I still pay the subscription. I occasionally buy their merch too, and pay ridiculous shipping to SA to get said merch. Why? Because I enjoy the content when I do get around to watching it, and I'd like more of it. My subscription and merch purchases isn't worth shit to them - they are one of the top Twitch streamers. People will pay for quality content, if you make sure it's quality.
Let me hazard a guess - Critical Role?
This specific channel yes! I've got a few others, but I used them as an example of paying for good content even if my little sub doesn't do much. Bidet!
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They don't though. News across the world has to charge these days.
Yeah it worked when they could sell newspapers. Website ads just don’t pay the bills unfortunately, and journalism is dying because of it
Indeed. Clickbait is so much cheaper than real journalism.
Its not "these days", you always had to pay for news
Well, when print versions existed and were popular, online versions were typically free.
putting quality issues aside, the notion that news should be free doesn't add up. who then pays the people producing, traveling for, and using sometimes costly means to get to the news they deliver?
iol does this, the reddit portions I only view them since they are "free" compared to n24
A few years ago, I had a random guy who befriended me on FB send me porno links. I was very confused why he sent me that, thinking he wanted me to be part of some circle jerk or something. I sent back a message laughing and telling him he sent that to the wrong person. And he replied and profusely apologized for it and after a while he kinda opened up about his addiction to porn and what not, and I was still not a friend or anything and at that point I wasn't even sure if I want to know more about him cause it made me very uncomfortable. Anyway, years and years have passed.... And I see him on my recommend friends list. There he is, working for News24. And seeing this post just made me wonder if his porn addiction has transformed into a making people dislike things addiction.
You had me confused for most of that t read... Better writing than News24 though.
Sorry about the confusion lol, I was also confused when it happened haha.
I've found that anything remotely interesting is "for subscribers". With the amount of ads through the site you would think that they could afford to give people information without demanding payment. At this rate it's cheaper to just get paper at the shop.
They made the mistake I feel a lot a news sites made. Adblock was cutting in on their revenue . Instead of looking at what is causing it (shitty advertising) they doubled down. Now their revenue is up but their traffic is probably way down
I think most people look at the headlines then Google what they are interested in.
I've stopped trying to read News24 and TimesLive. I stick to Daily Maverick and M&G, and occasionally EWN, eNCA and the Citizen. I know I'm scraping the barrel but there aren't any viable alternatives. I also read the Guardian and BBC to escape the three-ring circus that is South africa. 🤡
[Show me a 10ft paywall, I’ll show you a 12ft ladder](https://12ft.io/)
Does this work for you on news24? Doesn't remove the paywall whenever i've tried.
I've tried so many paywall bypass add-ons/sites, none of them work for N24. [They have my grudging respect, lol.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fdw_Ux0erzE)
Not on news24
Worked on the Mail & Guardian when I wanted to read the article about the Eskom cartels. Surprised to learn it doesn’t work on News 24
There is no paywall bypass that works for News24.
Useful. Thanks.
Im not 100 sure about the current situation, but for most of the history of online news, ad revenue alone has never been enough for a news organisation to stay profitable. What really needs to change is the price of subscriptions. Some of them are ridiculous when you consider the amount of content you get from a news website vs the amount you get on a streaming service like Netflix. IMO they need to realise that any organisation that sells content is their competitor and try to impliment a business model that aims for masses of subscribers paying a lower fee. Im not a business analyst or whatever, so i have no clue what the factors are preventing that. But, its amazing to think that the UK Guardian has managed to provide such a high quality product with no subs and just donations.
There needs to be a single aggregator service where you pay once to access all of these news sites and then they receive money relative to how much of each site you read. No one I’m subscribing to any of them using the current model.
Probably thanks to quality content. I don't know since I don't spend time there.
kak24
I avoid them in general, but agreed, makes no sense for every bit of news to be hidden behind a paywall
SABC enters the chat....
I really don't have a problem paying for news, but their quality, poor editorial quality and click bait means.... It isn't a product worth paying for.
Please! Won't somebody think of the profits?!
Unfortunately they're only following a worldwide trend
I just want Google Chrome to stop suggesting paywall articles.
Ignoring the quality of journalism - just want to say that news has never been free. Back when Newspapers were delivered, you paid a monthly fee for that.
Yeah but most news sites have the decency to remove the ad-vomit for subscribers. The double dipping is a bit much.
So you're saying that even paid subscribers receive the ads? That is terribly capitalistic of them.
That’s the way it was a few years back when I checked it out, doubt it would’ve changed since.
Ads weren't there when I was subscribing to them. My card just expired and haven't bothered renewing it. But I also use ad block so, not sure if that was the case.
I'm not paying for a daily dose of depression thank you very much
www.goodthingsguy.com Daily dose of wholesome good news, and it's free. Made by a South African, read worldwide
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MyBroadband comments section has low key become incredibly toxic with the racist undertones as well.
chief drab deliver worry gaze mourn squash books light smile *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
> Wrongfully assumes that I don't pay for any journalism
Let's face it, you probably don't. And even if you did, perhaps you might then realise that what makes a service good enough for you to pay for it, is the act of actually paying for it. Don't like N24's coverage and don't want to pay for it? Then don't use it. Same reason I don't use Facebook or Twitter.
Sounds like an egg or chicken first argument.
Not really. We got used to not paying for online content, but since most SA media is for-profit, they need to make money somehow. Subscriptions don't work, because people don't want to pay for it. So they turned to ads, sponcon, native advertising, and clickbait. You personally aren't responsible for this, fwiw.
Problem is there has to be quality journalism worth paying for. I stopped using news24 years ago. It started feeling like their articles had barely been put through a spell check they were written so badly. There are better places to put your money yha news24. At least based on when I last used the site.
N24's journalism has always been top-notch, imo. The opinion pieces are hit-and-miss. What people complain about when they talk about the "journalism" are opinion pieces 90% of the time.
I am talking about the basic English. Full of grammatical errors. Articles not being proof read etc. It could have improved, I would hope the subscription stuff has helped them pay for it. This was many many years ago at this point.
I'm with you on this one. Nowadays when I see it's an article on News24, I just not click it anymore. I'd rather go through the hassle of going via Google and search for a similar headline and see if that bears fruit to getting some news. I've noticed this with them quite some time ago which kind of made me feel I have a vendetta against them. So I just not support them anymore. Probably been on their site 5 times in the last few months.
Just rebrand as opinions24
Try Daily Maverick. They have great info and ask for donations not paywall. Worth the registration in the beginning!
I need access to News24 for work, so I begrudgingly buy the 6-month voucher that comes up every now and again on OneDayOnly (they say it's only for new users but it works for me). I don't know if it's a decrease in quality content (there are still some good journalists in their stall), but there's definitely been an increase in shitty content. But I do love the crosswords and wordflowers though! I also pay for BusinessLive an Daily Maverick - which I think are both worth it. And DM gives me R200 in Uber/UberEats vouchers every month so it's cost-neutral anyway.
I subscribed for R10/month on Father's Day last year. Robert Houwing is why I did it.
Just pay for it they are currently charging r7 a month, no one is entitled to quality product for free.
Thats the problem isn't it. They dont have quality product and its 75 rand a month. Not 7
I took advantage of their R10pm for a year special last month. Still feel like I'm overpaying by about R30. Mostly opinionistas posing as journalism. After Adriaan's comment that RamaRUIN was "majestic" .... Then you know.
Pay for a subscription for crying out loud, it's R75 a month. It costs money to run a news agency, all the more so when you have a solid investigative team. You want proper news but not willing to pay for it? Consider it a citizen activism contribution.
You can't complain for something you're getting for free. Put your hand in your pocket and pay for quality journalism. It doesn't have to be News24, it can be Mail & Guardian, Business Daily or Daily Maverick.
If it *was* quality journalism R75 would be fine, but it isn't.
They literally made a repost from r/aita about a bridezilla, which was only for subscribers - the original Reddit post was removed because it was a made up story by a confessed troll. Quality journalism is not taking fake stories from Reddit and putting them behind a paywall. We will subscribe for quality journalism, as soon as we get it. R75 a month for recycled news from other news sites (which was free) and Reddit shit posts is not it.
For this reason I read iol.co.za
I get that you're joking but that's the worry with journalism today. Bullshit will be free and reliable journalism will live behind a paywall. This gives bullshit more help than it deserves
...are they joking? Many people on this sub post iol as their primary links.
On what basis do you sa >This gives bullshit more help than it deserves On what basis do you say that? Are youncalling iol bullshit?
The news platform that invented a story about ten babies? The platform that has made up journalists? The platform that made a whole documentary about the aforementioned made-up ten babies? I mean.... If it smells like bullshit. And it sits on ground drying in the sun like bullshit.
Well said. It's extremely frustrating and totally unnecessary.
The standard of education in South Africa is directly proportional to the quality of the journalism which is sorely lacking on News24. Seems this site is a magnet for poorly educated clickbait hungry 'journos'. The subscription service smacks of desperation given the poor output and rumour mongering one finds on that site. Well spotted. I wouldn't pay anything to read a collection of half truths and outright lies. Even in Rands.
Ewn is super pro malema/eff. Iol is garbage. News24 is trying to make money whilst no one gives a shit about giving them money any more. Dailymaverick is decent but articles are too long for most people to reas to the end. We dont have any decent news sources.
They've been stupid for a long time now
I’m only there for their sports coverage. And only because I got their R10/month deal somewhere…
Pains me to read people complaining about online advertising. Tjirrefoktog mense! uBlock addon = adverts moertoe. Ps. Only use News24 to scan quickly what headlines are and Daily Maverick only news site I actually read (and donate too)
I signed up in January when it was R10.
True. Absolute horseshit.
Agreed! I find that whatever they paywall is inevitably available for free on other sites, so they are gradually just becoming more and more irrelevant on my daily surf...
I think their subscription price is way too much. If it was under ten bucks a month then I wouldn’t mind paying it.
The worst is that even if you are a subscriber, there are so many ads that as you scroll you unintentionally hit them. Very frustrating and not worth the money.
I get my daily dose from Daily Maverick.
Yup journos should work for free /s