I’m sorry, this is the same old in search of revenues mantra by governments with little imagination or foresight. Call this revenue squeeze a tax and be done with it, even if you wish to redistribute those tax revenues to shore up local political power. At least graft is out in the open. This reality could be more acceptable to the online public.

Though legacy media lamely tiptoes on, it’s pretty much dead with a few successes left treading the waters! Governments' thinking of leveraging spoils from the big tech winners is not going to work, there will be end runs and more ways around regulations, and if not, there is the option of just up and leaving a nation-state. In the end, to internet users, it comes off as censorship enabled by the state.

Whatever evolves from the scrap heap of legacy journalism will probably be blog consortiums like Medium or individuals that are good at what they do, technically and journalistically. Podcasts, videocasts, and almost anycast via co-op news organizations, regional down to individuals are a part of the news and information solution. There will be subscription models for the survivors, and apps like Patreon probably won’t cut it nor big tech aggregators that literally want to draw blood from publishes and subscribers alike, similar to Apple’s bait and switch dance of news wannabees, IMO.

Actually, when you think about it, we are all dead, we just haven’t fallen over yet or haven’t accepted the fact that economic gravity will perform its task.

Oh, shame on me, almost forgot, happy Mother’s Day.