The Atlantic

How to Save the News Media

What if the government offered tax-free status to media start-ups?
Source: Brendan Smialowski / AFP / Getty

A nightmare. A wasteland. A place of confusion and half-truth. Ask Americans these days for their impressions of the news media and they are likely to produce such grim descriptions.

These sentiments boil and fester as political and regulatory communities, whether motivated to tackle information monopolies or address data-privacy concerns, seem poised to get serious about new laws that could fundamentally alter the media ecosystem. But much of this energy is focused on the big

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