IronMntn

As a parent, what is the #1 thing I can do at home, outside the classroom, to help my first grader improve her reading?

Not OP but in the industry and have been involved in these kinds of conversations. To be honest, there's a real lack of creative thinking around how to drive revenue at newspapers and other legacy print media. Being a good journalist does not make one a good businessperson, and given that the good businesspeople at newspapers were traditionally considered good because they sold a lot of advertising, figuring out new business models that aren't based on advertising, and are based on technology and audience behavior that they don't necessarily understand has, to put it mildly, not gone great.

Personally, I've shared my own thoughts about a microtransaction based model not entirely dissimilar to what you describe. Given we used to charge people a quarter for the whole paper, why not do a per-article paywall where each story costs a nickel, or ten cents, or whatever? Or as you propose, the ability to buy a single issue of a magazine or edition of the paper on a per-edition basis? Would it work? I don't think anyone knows, but my philosophy has always been that, especially at a time of such desperation in the industry, you're never going to know unless you try.

How much does what you're reading at home with kids matter? When my younger brother was learning to read, he only wanted to read Star Wars books, and my parents were just not onboard with that until a teacher told them "it's not what kids read, it's that kids read." Do most experts agree that's true and that the content is not as relevant as the fact kids are reading?

You're absolutely right. I remember those early days where the attitude was essentially that the internet was nothing more than a fad, so why not give it away for free, no one's really going to read it there anyway, and they would certainly never give up a print subscription in favor of doing so.

Granted you've still got nearly 20 years of pop music to go, but of the half century you've covered so far, what is the worst, most grating #1 you've encountered so far?