Howdy! This morning's bulletin is brought to you by Chris.

The truth is paywalled but the lies are free — www.currentaffairs.org

I'm delighted that this article from Nathan J. Robinson is getting significant pick-up across the media world, if only because it's exactly what we've been arguing for years. Newspapers are not doing their jobs if they leave the vast majority of the public unable to access vital news and information. Few people are willing to pay for news, and by locking it down it leaves the majority of people subject to the predations of misinformation.

Robinson illustrates this with an example: "This means that a lot of the most vital information will end up locked behind the paywall. And while I am not much of a New Yorker fan either, it’s concerning that the Hoover Institute will freely give you Richard Epstein’s infamous article downplaying the threat of coronavirus, but Isaac Chotiner’s interview demolishing Epstein requires a monthly subscription, meaning that the lie is more accessible than its refutation."

Nobody would argue that subscription models aren't money-spinners for the larger newspapers, or that good journalism costs money. But at this point you'd have to be wilfully blind to argue that universal adoption of hard paywalls would be good for the public - and it's why we're so desperate to see a model like the Guardian's open journalism approach prove to be a success.

Inside the Hong Kong Newsroom at the edge of autocracy — www.theatlantic.com

The South China Morning Post is a strange beast as newspapers go. But, as The Atlantic's Timothy McLaughlin argues, it "is arguably the world’s most important newspaper for what it tells us about media freedoms as China’s power grows."

Bloomberg and The Athletic to bundle subscriptions — www.axios.com

The bundle is back! Sara Fischer argues that joint subscription packages may be the next big trend - particularly for news orgs with synergy like these two.

Lessons from award-winning podcasts: Olive Magazine’s Janine Ratcliffe — voices.media

The podcast may be on summer break but the content mill never stops churning. Here, we asked Janine Ratcliffe, Food Director and podcast host, to share some of her insights into what has made the Olive podcast so successful.

Throwback... Wednesday?

Popbitch co-founder Camilla Wright on creating a niche in the celebrity gossip market — voices.media

A fun one from last year: Popbitch co-founder Camilla Wright tells us about the origins of the influential celebrity gossip site, whether celebs ever try to plant stories about themselves, and the romanticism of clandestine meetings in dark pubs.

Buy us an ice cream — ko-fi.com

We finally figured out how to pronounce Ko-fi, so now we have no hesitation in directing you to our Ko-fi page. If you feel like supporting the podcast, then please kick in whatever you can. It always makes our day.