A Farewell to Free Journalism – The Washington Post – Medium

"Free journalism was a gift — one that journalists can no longer afford to keep giving to readers...

So how did my industry make it work for so long? The answer is that we never did, really, which is why so many newspapers and magazines are struggling to stay afloat, and so many Web publications are burning through piles of investor money as they hunt for a viable business model. The more interesting question is why we couldn’t make it work. And the answer to that lies in the structure of the traditional media business...."