News sites everywhere have seen traffic plummet in the past two years. That’s partly the fault of technology companies and their algorithmic changes, which have made people less likely to see or click on articles when using products like Google Search or Facebook.

Or maybe it is also the fault of news sites putting tracking and advertising to their users first or even selling them a subscription. You can’t expect the same number of visitors if you want people to sign up for something as you got when access was free. Not to mention that even among sites with cookie banners news sites are among the worst offenders when it comes to dark patterns and number of companies they want to share your data with.