The Economist ran a report last October that describes a “paywall” model. In the article, which references several established press organizations, the Economist reports that, “The Post has settled on three site visits a month before hitting the paywall, which means 85% of visitors will not encounter it. The other 15% are asked to subscribe at the introductory rate of 99 cents for the first four weeks.” It’s an intriguing way to capture potential subscribers while not scaring away those not quite prepared to signup.

“Advertising has always been a ‘tax’ on our attention”, according to Bob Gilbreath in a Medium piece. “The ‘free media with advertising’ grand bargain seems more like a bad deal as the value of our attention spans rise. We have more media choices and distractions than ever before in our lives. We are multi-tasking and keeping up with many things at once. Pausing to watch an advertisement is a speed bump in our busy lives. And once we cut some of these interruptions out with subscriptions, the remaining ads we do see feel even more painful — thus shifting the value equation toward skipping and subscribing.”

The same article also references positive trends in ad-free radio, highlighting Spotify, SiriusXM, and Pandora. According to the piece, “Pandora is moving to a subscription because of profit pressure from public investors who are tired of subsidizing an ad business model that hasn’t materialized. The investor community in general has become enamored with Software as Service (SaaS) subscription business models because they bring predictable, recurring revenues.”

It doesn’t stop there. The Verge reported just this February that not only would Amazon Prime customers be available ad free to customers, but also that the company would stop displaying advertisements and offers on the lock screen of partner phones for Prime customers.

Concurrently, the Netflix business model for some time has been to push smart content out to subscribers, also without advertisements. SportsFacts featured a piece last June that Netflix will overtake ESPN in total broadcasting budget in 2018, another indication that demand for subscriptions is trending positively.

The growth in digital press subscriptions comes within the context of questionable and blatantly fake stories being shared across social media channels. Just prior to the 2016 election, a Washington Post analysis stated, “As part of a larger audit of Facebook’s Trending topics, the Intersect logged every news story that trended across four accounts during workdays from August 31 to September. 22. During that time, we uncovered five trending stories that were indisputably fake and three that were profoundly inaccurate.”

We all know what came next. A recent Vanity Fair piece reflects on a negative outlook for Facebook and speculates on scenarios for a regulatory breakup of the company.