A Challenge to Arthur Sulzberger

Dear Mr. Sulzberger:

I am a loyal reader of The New York Times. 

​As our country degrades dangerously close to authoritarianism taking hold, the civic responsibility of a newspaper grows increasingly important. In fact, we could possibly say the current impoverished condition of the American mind and America’s lack of access to education, information and analysis has helped  lead us to this frightening place.

I would like to suggest to you that you find a way to have advertising or another source of revenue pay for the production of your newspaper so that you can offer it to your readers at a reasonable price. More  Americans deserve a decent shot at being informed. I have been paying nearly $500 a year to read your paper. This is prohibitive for most people, including me, and this is how your paper becomes a product that is only for the wealthy.

I am impressed with how The Guardian has approached their civic responsibility to their readers by refusing to put up a pay wall so that all may access the news. They simply insist, as newspapers have traditionally done, that advertising pay for the news. 

 I realize that running a newspaper profitably or even sustainably these days is a great challenge, but I think we must do better to get access to good reporting to all people at an affordable price. If it is costly to run a good newspaper, let's shift the burden of that expense off the reader and on to another source. If ads won’t cover it, then we must find another source.  Please consider this.

Thank you,

Molly Miller