The Guardian flourishes without a paywall

Photo-Illustration: Intelligencer; Photos: Getty Images There was a time in media when having a billionaire owner was an asset. For many outlets, this is still the case, particularly those publishing super-secretive group chats of powerful government officials who seem eager to trample on the rights of the press. But for others, like the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times, both of which have seen their benefactors bend a knee to Donald Trump and sacrifice the integrity of their newspapers in the process, ownership has become a problem. A problem that the Guardian US, the American arm of the British newspaper, has exploited. “All around us, media organizations have begun to capitulate,” editor Betsy Reed writes in the current fundraising appeal at the bottom of each Guardian article. “The Guardian has neither a self-interested billionaire owner nor profit-seeking corporate henchmen pressuring us to appease the rich and powerful. With the new administration boasting about its de ... Read full article.