View source for A free press is one you pay for

[[File:References.png|alt=Wikipedia's ranking of media sources.|thumb|'''Figure 1''': Wikipedia's ranking of media sources.]]
'''There's no such thing as a free lunch.''' There is an inherent cost to the creation and distribution of media, that cost needs to be recouped. The recouping of costs used to come in an upfront fee to access the information such as a subscription payment for a magazine or the direct cost of a newspaper. However, some outlets realised that they did not need to charge an upfront cost and started giving their media away for free on the basis that there were adverts included. This has now evolved even further, in that the adverts in some cases are the articles that are actually written yet not disclosed.