Facebook Freeloads Off Newspapers. This Plan Might Stop It

Imagine you have an app that, when downloaded, does extraordinary things in your zip code. People with this app have higher median incomes, so you find yourself richer. It lowers air pollution, so it makes your air cleaner. It reduces partisan polarization, so your town’s elections are more pleasant affairs. Among other things, it lowers your taxes.

Such an app exists, in a sense: It’s called journalism. At scale, it delivers enormous benefits to society—as a prophylactic on government waste, by weeding out corruption, and by helping democratic communities cohere—and...