re: So some reporters are putting a digital tip jar on their articles.

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Yep. Everyone wants good reporting, but no one wants to pay for it.

Reports might look desperate for the digital tip jar, but it's trashy to bitch about paywalls.

I have certainly changed my opinion on this. News articles and such aren't free to produce, we need to reevaluate how we consume the info.

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The fact of the matter is that in modern day America, outside of a legitimate investigative journalist who works on an in depth piece, most of the work is already done for them. You have people tweeting stories and video 24/7/365 that those journalists often scoop and rarely ever give credit for.

The biggest culprits of this are the weather rooms of media outlets. Let a chaser or spotter get a decent video or pic, and watch the leeches flock to it within minutes. They all come with the same line, "Hi, so-and-so, we hope you are safe. Did you take this video, and if so can we have your permission to use it on all of our platforms with credit to you, of course? Here is a link to our terms of agreement."

Now, you will see 10+ of those replies on a good video. They will not only be from local outlets, but from national as well as groups that specialize in marketing said videos to their clients that happen to be other media outlets. They rarely ever offer to pay upfront, and they rarely respond to the person who got the content when they tell them they will discuss a licensing fee for the content.

This is happening more and more in other news as well. Stringers have figured it out, and have gained enough market footprint to demand fair pay for their content. The weather community hasn't made it there quite yet, but they are working on it. However, every single person who gives their content away "for credit" is undermining that effort.

The bottom line is that credit doesn't pay the bills.