The Verge, a technology news site founded in 2011 and owned by Vox Media, was the first to put up a paywall on Tuesday, according to an announcement by editor-in-chief Nilay Patel. Subscriptions to The Verge cost $7 a month or $50 a year, Patel said, and that a “surprising number” of readers have requested the change.
“Today, we’re launching a Verge subscription that will remove tons of ads and give you unlimited access to a world of top-rated reporting and analysis across the site, great premium newsletters, and sponsored independent technology journalism,” Patel said in a statement posted online. Patel said the “vast majority” of the site will remain available for free, but did not go into details.
Patel explained his case for the Verge paywall by pointing out some major changes in recent years.
“If you’re a Verge reader, you know we’ve been reporting on massive, fundamental changes in how the internet works for years,” Patel wrote. “Most major social media platforms are openly hostile to links, major changes in search are killing off smaller sites, and everything is covered in a layer of AI crap and weird scams. The algorithmic media ecosystem is now openly hostile to the kind of rigorous, independent journalism we want to do.”
Patel wrote, “We’ve actually received a surprising number of messages from people asking how they can pay for our work. This is flattering feedback from our loyal readers, but it remains to be seen whether this is a trick of a messaging website living in the modern 2020s.”
Patel points out the number of online-only news sites that have folded in recent years. BuzzFeed News won awards for its reporting but closed down in 2023. Vice News similarly went bust earlier this year, but its pro-Trump trashiness seems to be slowly making a comeback.
Given the digital media landscape in late 2024, Patel’s argument for switching to subscriptions sounds reasonable, but as new sites start putting up paywalls, it’s hard not to feel like the open internet we all grew up on is slowly disappearing. Most people never subscribe and simply find their news elsewhere. Or, increasingly among some of the youngest Americans, they simply don’t read the news at all. Patel said some of The Verge’s content will remain free, but all of its original stories, reviews and features will be behind a paywall. Subscribers will also no longer see the ads that appear every time someone visits The Verge.
