"In this new Digital Age, the Press needs to find a new model"
It did. In this digital age, small time publishers and blogs can now have an audience thanks to advertisers. If they're popular and providing great content they will, at minimum, make enough to cover the cost of hosting. They have a potential viewership of 6 billion people. Without advertisers, this just wouldn't exist. The internet would be different at the fundamental level.
Most people severely underestimate what advertisers bring to the table in terms of enabling content producers.
That's nothing, that's like microwave heated food.
In Greece you can buy newspapers (paper or digital). You'll see ads from banks, drinks and state-owned organizations (Lottery games, etc.). So basically they are financed from the very same people they should be exposing, that's why in 40 years of bank-state back-channeling and corruption no one has ever been seriously exposed. Not to mention that freedom press in Greece 84th between Togo and Kosovo. Note that USA is 32 and UK is 29, not exactly freedom champions. It's not because they kill journalists, they fire them :-)
It did. In this digital age, small time publishers and blogs can now have an audience thanks to advertisers. If they're popular and providing great content they will, at minimum, make enough to cover the cost of hosting. They have a potential viewership of 6 billion people. Without advertisers, this just wouldn't exist. The internet would be different at the fundamental level.
Most people severely underestimate what advertisers bring to the table in terms of enabling content producers.