If you talk to people in the for-profit news industry, they’ll tell you there are three basic ways to make money from journalism:
Put up a paywall and make people pay a subscription fee.
Sell ad space to corporations that want to sell things to your readers.
Collect people’s personal information and sell it to data brokers.
But here at Common Dreams — a 501(c)3 nonprofit that believes in a better world and brighter future for the planet and people — we don’t do any of these things. We take a very different view of the purpose of journalism and how it should be funded.
After all, how can you serve all people if you charge a subscription fee that many people can’t afford?
How can you claim to be independent of corporate influence if ad dollars from ExxonMobil, Amazon, Walmart, Pfizer, and Cigna pay your salary?
And secretly selling people’s personal data? Now that’s just evil.