Paul GrahamVerified account

The really big piece of intellectual dishonesty there is pretending subscriptions are separate from clicks. Clicks are how you get them. It makes no difference if a click yields one cheap ad impression, or a small probability of a valuable subscriber. It's the same driver.

Paul: you need to distinguish between "clicks" and "click-bait." Click-bait does not drive subscriptions. Nor do clicks on poorly-reported stories, stories that are salacious for the sake of being salacious, etc.

second this. "it makes no difference" => it makes a huge difference. Our newsroom cares much more about conversions than pageviews. this analysis is 5 years out of date

Sure, but could your newsroom be the exception against an industry that is otherwise bending to the incentives they face?

we could be an early adopter but I don't even think we are, especially. NYT, WSJ, WaPo, Business Insider, Atlantic, Wired. many if not most of the top national news brands are prioritizing subscriptions and other non-ad revenue