Admittedly that was true for 20th century news (regardless if bought in Newspaper form or Radio or TV), since all these forms except government financed services relied and rely more on ads more than what you as consumer pay. This includes of course the Economist too.
]]>Not only household tech. The development of permanent, longtime, reliable refrigeration changed how cities look by killing off city farming (no more need for in-city production perishable goods like milk and eggs). It allowed the rise of big abattoir centres (Chicago) and centralization of the whole agriculture sector. Long-distance transportation of food and perishables - things before produced 1-3 days travel (per train or ship usually) could now be produced thousands of miles away. Longer transportation was possible with ice too, but the price and the work involved with the bad reliability made it something not used in the same scale. It was one of the more significant developments of the 20th century (well invented in the 19th, but commercially viable in the 20th).
]]>