I think you're lowballing the cost, though the total still remains low.
At the 2005 advertising peak, ads income (a cost born by the public through product purchases) was $50 billion. Subscription expense in 2020 was another $11 billion. Pro-rated per person among the 330 million population of the US:
An advertising-free subscription assuming 2.5 persons per household on average would run less than $40/mo. With advertising, the cost would be less than $8/mo. This would fund journalism at the levels of 2005, whilst making the work product available to every household in the US.
We could factor in all book publishing revenues, roughly $25 billion (2019), for another $6.50/mo.[1]
Again, pro-rating this by household wealth / value, would make information equitably avaialable to all.
I think you're lowballing the cost, though the total still remains low.
At the 2005 advertising peak, ads income (a cost born by the public through product purchases) was $50 billion. Subscription expense in 2020 was another $11 billion. Pro-rated per person among the 330 million population of the US:
- Advertising: $50 billion -- $150/person ($12.60/person-month)
- Subscription: $11 billion -- $33/person ($2.75/person-month)
- Combined: $61 billion -- $183/person ($15.40/person-month)
https://www.pewresearch.org/journalism/fact-sheet/newspapers...
An advertising-free subscription assuming 2.5 persons per household on average would run less than $40/mo. With advertising, the cost would be less than $8/mo. This would fund journalism at the levels of 2005, whilst making the work product available to every household in the US.
We could factor in all book publishing revenues, roughly $25 billion (2019), for another $6.50/mo.[1]
Again, pro-rating this by household wealth / value, would make information equitably avaialable to all.
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Notes:
1. https://publishers.org/news/aap-statshot-annual-report-book-...