This past summer, John Oliver laid out a now-familiar narrative of journalism’s decline. He decried profit-hungry billionaires like Sam Zell, who have sent big papers into bankruptcy; lamented shrinking advertising revenues; and used a Spotlight satire to criticize clickbait.

He ended with a popular conclusion about the crisis in journalism:

The truth is, a big part of the blame for this industry’s dire straights is on us and our unwillingness to pay for the work journalists produce. The longer we get something for free, the more unwilling we are to pay for it. We are all going to have to pay for journalism or we are going to pay for it.