The pivot to paid is, in most ways, a positive development in the search for sustainable media models. That’s not to say ad-dependent media is dead, not by a long shot. But too often in the excitement around subs the attention goes to acquisition vs retention. And the latter is where the true health of a subscriptions business is gauged.

The default method of getting to where I want to on the web is search. By putting content behind a paywall it’s non-existent for the Google Bot, which is bad for driving traffic (potential customers) to your site and constructing an interlinked narrative. It’s also bad for generating any kind of virality. Because of those reasons almost all paid... See more