I just saw that, thanks for pointing it out...I think (and I was debating touching on this in the piece, but didn't because it was already over word count) that there *are* some situations in which lowering the paywall is merited, which is basically when reading a story can protect someone's immediate health and safety. Coverage of an approaching hurricane, for instance, should probably be free and available to all. In this case, stories like Levi Weaver's seem to fit into that camp, especially in this moment when we're working so hard to end mental health stigma and there's all this research that seeing people talk about mental health struggles can empower others to do the same. My concrete point of view is that in the case of the Weaver story, it makes complete sense to lower the paywall; that's a case where reading the story as originally published might literally save someone's life. But I don't think that conflicts with keeping the paywall up on the Callaway story, which for the sake of The Athletic and journalism in general deserves to be paid for.
Meanwhile, Levi Weaver's personal story about depression today was made available to everyone.
I just saw that, thanks for pointing it out...I think (and I was debating touching on this in the piece, but didn't because it was already over word count) that there *are* some situations in which lowering the paywall is merited, which is basically when reading a story can protect someone's immediate health and safety. Coverage of an approaching hurricane, for instance, should probably be free and available to all. In this case, stories like Levi Weaver's seem to fit into that camp, especially in this moment when we're working so hard to end mental health stigma and there's all this research that seeing people talk about mental health struggles can empower others to do the same. My concrete point of view is that in the case of the Weaver story, it makes complete sense to lower the paywall; that's a case where reading the story as originally published might literally save someone's life. But I don't think that conflicts with keeping the paywall up on the Callaway story, which for the sake of The Athletic and journalism in general deserves to be paid for.