Brain Pickings is a website that is supported directly via readers.
How do we support alternatives to ad supported journalism? The problem goes back to the original newspapers. Today writers can focus on a site and readers will follow them. Although it is simple to be online, it is not cheap. Brain Pickings costs $3,600 a month. Add a minimum wage employee and it is nearly $7,000 (instead Maria works 18 hours a day on her own).
RadioLab is on public radio and does the normal fund raising, but they now do live shows too to bring in money. 99% Invisible rose the most money on Kickstarter ever recently.
Spot.us is community funded reporting. Flattr allows for a sort of subscription way to spread money amongst content creators, though it's trapped in circular logic that no one signs up for flatr because there are no donations and no one donates because no one is signed up.
When any one way becomes they way, that becomes a dangerous thing.
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