The modern paywall has attained its final fortress defending form – Breaking News & Latest Updates 2026
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David Pierce
“The modern paywall has attained its final, fortress-defending form.”

I don’t agree with all of it, but this n+1 takedown of the modern internet media experience — the paywalls, the focus on insiders, the newsletterification of everything — is if nothing else a fantastic read.

One sometimes finds oneself in the debased position of opening a new article, immediately selecting all, and pasting the results into an unformatted Google Doc before the paywall finishes loading. This kind of subterfuge can only generate sheepishness — but then again, how many subscriptions can one person handle?

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