It's not just that partisanship has increased: the age of ad-funded has deeply spoiled us with its ability to easily sample the whole spectrum. Even people who hardly ever put that to use (e.g. me) would perceive subscribing to a single source (or two) as a downgrade from what they have. Not a good setup to sell something.
News media really need to look into what they can do to offer spectrum for a non-excessive price. "Spotify for news" could be a way, or (they surely would not want to sell out to a platform taking control of everything money!) wide spectrum syndication networks ("subscription at x includes guest pass options at y, z, a and b"). The challenge is getting all that not only across the opinion spectrum, but also across borders because that's how much we are spoiled.
Another issue with news is syndication, that is multiple outlets running the same story. If I want to watch Peeky Blinders then I have to go to Netflix, if I want to watch Game of Thrones I have to go to HBO, there is no (legal) alternative.
But say there is some piece of breaking news and I click on a NYT article and get a "please subscribe to read this article", I might be tempted if they were the only ones running the article but I can just go to google news, search for the topic, and find 10 other outlets running the same story, 5 of which require no subscription so I just go to one of those.
Another issue with news is syndication, that is multiple outlets running the same story. If I want to watch Peeky Blinders then I have to go to Netflix, if I want to watch Game of Thrones I have to go to HBO, there is no (legal) alternative.
But say there is some piece of breaking news and I click on a NYT article and get a "please subscribe to read this article", I might be tempted if they were the only ones running the article but I can just go to google news, search for the topic, and find 10 other outlets running the same story, 5 of which require no subscription so I just go to one of those.
This. We need multiple sources because everything will have a certain amount of bias baked in even if they're trying to be scrupulously honest. There will always be a zone of uncertainty and within that news organizations will generally choose a point on the side of whatever they think their readership wants to see.
And beyond that there's the reality that even the reasonably honest ones care more about being able to report than about the accuracy of the report. The threat of denied access gets most everyone to lie.
News media really need to look into what they can do to offer spectrum for a non-excessive price. "Spotify for news" could be a way, or (they surely would not want to sell out to a platform taking control of everything money!) wide spectrum syndication networks ("subscription at x includes guest pass options at y, z, a and b"). The challenge is getting all that not only across the opinion spectrum, but also across borders because that's how much we are spoiled.