Trying to get reliable information in 2025 should feel easier than its ever been. With the rise of social media making people more connected than ever and news sites more accessible than ever, more people should be able to read reliable news. However, the rise of paywalls on popular news sites like The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Atlantic makes it harder for people to know where to go for their news.
While there are several reliable and unbiased news sites with no paywall in sight, there are plenty of well-known sites that have a paywall that provides a barrier between the lower-income public who cannot pay for a subscription and reliable news. One of the most popular news sites with no pay wall is Fox News, which is considered by the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart to be skewed toward right leaning views. Another popular way people get news is through the political twitch streamer, HasanAbi, who also does not have a paywall, but leans very left on the political spectrum.
However, more neutral, only slightly skewed left news sites, like The Washington Post and The New York Times remain behind paywalls that make them more inaccessible to the general public. The fact that there seem to be more popular, reliable sites that are paywall protected than unreliable sites may contribute to the continued political polarization that seems to grow daily in the United States.
Second year sociology student at Winona State, Isabel Marty, has found the paywall epidemic on news sites to be at a detriment to educating the American people. “The fact that biased news sites have no paywalls entirely affects people’s views because nobody will be willing to pay for unbiased news when free propaganda is available,” she said.
Due to paywalls, it seems more and more people are going to biased sites to get their information. Having an informed public is often the key to ensuring that politicians are properly serving their constituents, however, it has been increasingly harder to stay up to date despite the rise of social media news because of these paywalls.
“I think paywalls on popular news sites gives people a negative view of that news source because news should be a public good, not only accessible to those who can afford it,” Marty said. “Staying up to date on current events should not be a privilege.”
Having more centered and unbiased news sites guarded by paywalls may also lead to the perception of news only being for the people who can afford paying the average of 16 dollars a month for a digital news subscription (Poynter). It may not seem like a lot of money to some, but others do not have these 16 dollars a month to spare. This is where the disparities between socioeconomic statuses may impact someone’s ability to consume unbiased, reliable news.
In a 2022 article on Axios, a journalism professor at New York University, Jay Rosen, states, “Literate and affluent people will be well served in the emerging economy for news. We know this. Just as we know that the rulers of empires will be kept well informed. What we don’t know is whether democratic publics will have quality news and information that wins their attention and fits their budget.”
As the United States continues on a financially unsure path, it may seem like news sites are just for the people who can afford them. This is not the case for every news site though. Even if it seems that there are no news sites that are unbiased and unguarded by a paywall, there are still sites dedicated to providing reliable news for the public good rather than a corporate pocket.
