A Spotify for India's online news providers

In the late 1990s, the most visited website for many Indians, especially NRIs, was samachar.com. It provided single-point, free online access to most major national newspapers.

A quarter of a century later, and the online Indian news landscape is unrecognisable. Some of the best, most honest journalism in India today is on online only platforms.

Content is increasingly behind paywalls. This is not a bad thing. There's no reason why quality journalistic content should be free. If we don't want advertising algorithms to rule our online existence, we must pay.

Many online platforms struggle financially. They employ a combination of payment models - subscription, donation, a mix of free and premium content, newsletters etc. Many have interesting content, but it is cumbersome (and expensive) to subscribe or donate to all. Also, you may like a single columnist on one, the news on a second and features on a third.

Here's where a Spotifyesque samachar.com for the 21st century could come in. Details will be important but here's the basic structure: a meta-platform with a single subscription, providing painless access to a variety of online providers.

A revenue model based on usage - click on a piece and a fraction of the pooled subscription monies goes to the platform creating it. Good articles get more clicks and more revenue. If people adore one platform, they can contribute directly to it, on top of their subscription.

This intermediary service could be a business, with a percentage of each provider's revenue going to the meta-platform; or as a public good, a non-profit, to which all providers contribute operational costs.

This would obviously be voluntary and some providers will back themselves to go it alone. That's OK.

A model like this may help to keep more of our best journalism affordable, independent and solvent.