Balji launches The Independent

[Confuseous]

To build anything close to a Malaysiakini and compete head-on with straitstimes.com or channelnewsasia.com, a site would have to budget something like a million dollars a year just for its editorial department. Since the The Independent is banned from receiving grants and loans from foreign foundations – how most independent news startups in the region were launched – it would need 10,000 subscribers paying $100 a year to sustain its editorial team. Considering how much Singaporeans will be forking out to watch the English Premier League in the coming season, or how much they pay for visits to the cinema each year, this isn’t really a lot. But try telling that to netizens who assume that “free media” should mean free of charge as well as politically free; and who think their job is done when they “like” a site’s Facebook page.

- http://journalism.sg/2013/08/09/bal...s-now-the-site-to-watch/#sthash.tlyyAjHO.dpuf

 

[Force 136]

who would want to pay money to catch something readily available for free at Sam's Courtyard or at Eat Drink Man Woman?