But that's what's selling.

If high quantity sold, the market would shift to produce it. As it stands, people are happy with consuming only the headline of an article and moving on.

There are still many high quality outlets; most have just changed to discussion based formats. Take Joe Rogan for example. He talks to a variety of people, sometimes about current events, sometimes not. Similarly, Tim Pool, Sam Seder, Stephen Crowder, The Daily Wire, Ethan Klein's show, etc. all are daily news shows that produce content in the format people want.

The market shifted. Those working for dying industries can reallocate themselves. That's how the market keeps capital allocation efficient.

“What the market produces is good because it is what the market produces”

At the end of the day the position of free market fundamentalists always comes down to a tautology.

Free markets don't allocate capital in the best way measured by societal goodness. They allocate capital in the most efficient way relative to the demands of other participants.

This means that goods/services are regularly not produced because it is unprofitable. If for some reason local news is profitable, then anyone that wants to consume it could easily step in to produce it.

Efficiency doesn't necessarily mean good. But it does prevent or at least minimize wasteful economic activity. Anything outside that realm is a good candidate for a hobby.

> Efficiency doesn't necessarily mean good.

That’s my point, just because it’s a product of the market, doesn’t mean it is what’s best for society.

Agreed, but it's still the best method of determining "good" we've designed as humans.

There's plenty of high quality writing out there that people pay for. That's Substack's business model.

I am speaking to the broad media landscape. It’s not that there aren’t business models for some high quality journalism. But the current landscape and incentive structures lean broadly towards low quality content.

Just because it is a market outcome doesn’t mean that it is optimal.

Edit: it is also important to note that substack still hasn’t been proven out in the market. It is being subsidized but VC money, time will tell if it is actually something that would survive in the “free market”.