The Baltimore Beat experiments with pay-what-you-can ads

The newspaper and nonprofit news site Baltimore Beat is rolling out pay-what-you-can ads.

“We hope this is a way that small businesses can feature themselves in the paper, keeping their services at the front of readers’ minds,” the Beat wrote in an announcement.

The Beat, launched after the city’s alt-weekly closed in 2017 and relaunched as a Black-led outlet in 2022, does not have a paywall, unlike cross-city competitors like The Baltimore Banner and Baltimore Sun. The nonprofit...