Poll: Who pays for their news?

[RunningBum]

I pay for NYT and WaPo online. I also have a family member on fixed income who really likes home delivery, so a couple years ago I took over payments as a 75th birthday present, and this gives me online access to that paper, from the town I grew up in.

Regarding a "local" paper, there are papers from two different areas not even in my county, and a county paper that seems to be part of third area within an hours drive, that I rarely go to. So, no local paper for me. There is a monthly magazine of local interest stories, and the people who run it are really good at posting local newsworthy stories on their website.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I don't pay for news any more.

If we had a local newspaper, I'd pay for it. However it went out of business several years ago, and was bought out by an outsider; now all they have is a website, and they fired all their journalists so "stories" are submitted by unpaid amateurs. Very unprofessional. The printed version is 99% ads, delivered free to every single house along with other junk ads. So, I don't subscribe to a local paper because that is not a choice here.

I don't listen to network news any more, either. It's not that I am too cheap to pay for news (almost?) but more like I haven't found any news source that I feel is worth [-]the powder to blow them to h***[/-] listening to regularly, much less paying for. Big news stories filter down to me anyway, somehow.

New Orleans' dilemma is very sad. Katrina drove in a stake at a time when newspapers were having their first major crisis. A national watchdog of the industry published an article tracking some of the people you may have known through the newspaper. I'm not sure how fresh this article is, but I think it's pretty recent. https://www.poynter.org/times-picayune-one-year-later/

 

[aja8888]

That's an interesting newspaper. Family ownership is becoming a rarity. The last four family-owned daily papers in my state sold out to a chain last year, including the one where the ME has been laid off. Gannett, Lee and Adams bring the news to Wisconsin now.

Yeah, the Waterbury R-A has been around since the mid 1800's.

 

[Toocold]

I primarily look at npr and apnews.

 

[easysurfer]

I don't pay for the news. My trouble is too much news finding me .

I get my news fix a lot each day and evening. But all public sources. No cable or paid subscriptions.

 

[aja8888]

I don't listen to network news any more, either. It's not that I am too cheap to pay for news (almost?) but more like I haven't found any news source that I feel is worth [-]the powder to blow them to h***[/-] listening to regularly, much less paying for. Big news stories filter down to me anyway, somehow.

That's kind of where I am these days. And many of my close friends are in the same mode (most friends over 70 years old). The last two years of horrible (and biased) reporting finished it for me. Now it's just the obits on the free home online rag and whatever rolls down to me.

My reconstituted golf game is my focus these days!

 

[W2R]

New Orleans' dilemma is very sad. Katrina drove in a stake at a time when newspapers were having their first major crisis. A national watchdog of the industry published an article tracking some of the people you may have known through the newspaper. I'm not sure how fresh this article is, but I think it's pretty recent. https://www.poynter.org/times-picayune-one-year-later/

Thanks. The article is pretty hazy about timeframe, possibly intentionally in order to make the story seem more relevant to the reader. However I think the buyout and firings occurred about a decade ago for the most part; when I google it, the Advocate bought out the Times Picayune in 2013, but I don't remember having a daily paper available at any time since before my 2009 retirement. They may have put out a Sunday paper until 2013 or so.

 

[braumeister]

All three of our primary news sources are on our iPads:

Local newspaper, digital access, $10/month. I wouldn't bother but DW insists on it.

Wall Street Journal, digital access and I just can't imagine being without it after being a steady subscriber for nearly 50 years.

The Economist, used to subscribe but now I just check it out via the local library every week. Again, a steady subscriber for nearly 40 years, but I think it has become less enjoyable in recent years -- a bit too "preachy" for my taste -- they used to be far more objective IMO.

NY Times, I got a trial subscription (digital) earlier this year for a buck a week, but will probably cancel when the trial period is up since I don't look at it that much.

I access many more sources of information of course, but those are the ones I would call "journalism".

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

I pay for NYT and WaPo online. I also have a family member on fixed income who really likes home delivery, so a couple years ago I took over payments as a 75th birthday present, and this gives me online access to that paper, from the town I grew up in.

Regarding a "local" paper, there are papers from two different areas not even in my county, and a county paper that seems to be part of third area within an hours drive, that I rarely go to. So, no local paper for me. There is a monthly magazine of local interest stories, and the people who run it are really good at posting local newsworthy stories on their website.

I have a google alert that cues me whenever a news item is published online that includes the name of my township, which is distinctive. It may be less useful for you.

Sharing the print/electronic subscription sounds like a win-win for both of you. I'm sure your relative appreciates it.

That said, it brings one of my pet peeves to mind. My regional paper posts in-depth journalistic projects online days before they appear in the print edition. When I get the Sunday paper (the only one the circulation department is willing to send me these days), the lead story is something I read online Wednesday. This is one of Gannett's larger newspapers. It seems like they want to kill the print edition, even though it remains their biggest moneymaker. Online ad revenue is pitiful in comparison.

 

[steelyman]

I pay for Sunday delivery of NYT. This includes digital access (which I use a lot) and two free bonus digital subscriptions that I give to two old friends. I really like it.

Included is a subscription to NYT Cooking but those recipes are too complex for me!

[ADDED] The NYT Sunday Magazine is always up-to-date in the rack in the downstairs, ahem, “reading room” along with a current copy of the free local independent newspaper and various other periodicals.

 

[Dreamer]

We subscribe to our local paper. DH enjoys reading it, but I rarely read it. We had it delivered 7 days per week for many years and then they quit having a Saturday and Monday paper. My DH told me today that starting in December, they will only have a Wednesday, Friday and Sunday paper. We can get it online, but neither of us choose to do so. He likes holding the paper, while drinking his coffee in the morning. He said he is about done with it.

I hope that the paper delivery continues until our last cat is gone. We have gone from 5 cats to 1 cat and she is 17 years old. She was never the smartest cat. She stands in the litter box, but misses the litter box and then covers it with litter. We have papers underneath and all around the box and have to change them frequently. We use our newspapers and I also have a friend that saves her papers for us also.

 

[tuckeverlasting]

Yes, I pay for 2 online national newspapers.

 

[Amethyst]

We have digital subscriptions to two national newspapers and one local one.

The local paper isn't really local - it's for several counties away - but close enough to be relevant, especially the weather analysis, a much more important topic in Florida than it was for us in Maryland. It's also more or less politically balanced compared to most papers.

 

[travelover]

I pay for a local paper as well as a couple of nationwide papers. I really think an active press is essential to a well functioning democracy. Otherwise, who is watching? I don't have time to go to local council meetings or to keep track of government officials abusing their power. Sure, it hurts when guys in my tribe get caught with their hands in the cookie jar, but I want to know that, too.

 

[Ready]

I miss the days of having a newspaper delivered to my home each morning. I looked forward to reading them while drinking my coffee. But in today’s internet connected world it seems pointless to waste the paper to print news any more. Anything they deliver would be old news by the time it got to my house and I’d want to check online to see if there were any further updates anyway, so I might as well just start online.

I tried the Apple News+ subscription for a month to see what it was like. If you really like reading a lot of different publications they are all pretty much there for $10/month. I found it was just too much to keep up with and there is so much free news that I didn’t really find it useful. But it was nice to scan through all of the magazines they had in their library. And WSJ is in there, so if you normally pay for that, News+ seems like it could be a good deal for you.

 

[Amethyst]

I noticed this preachy tendency, myself, a few years ago. At work we had digital subscriptions to virtually every paper on earth (text only), so I used to dip into the WSJ, Economist, NYT, and WaPo whenever I had a free moment.

I miss the WSJ but it's just too expensive.

The Economist, used to subscribe ....has become less enjoyable in recent years -- a bit too "preachy" for my taste -- they used to be far more objective IMO.

".

 

[Walt34]

I pay for a subscription to the local newspaper, but only six months at a time because I think it's going to fold any minute now. I've been doing that for the last 18 years since we moved here. The paper focuses on LOCAL news with some state issues and very little national news. And I like that they accentuate the positive, such as when some kid gets a full ride scholarship or into one of the military academies.

As far as national news goes, I've seen nothing worth paying for.

 

[pb4uski]

Only paid newspaper that I have is a electronic edition of the Wall Street Journal... currently $20/month and I'm ok with that but much more and I'll probably cancel.

There is also a statewide electronic news service up north that I periodically make contributions to, but its not a subscription.

 

[Yoheadden]

I subscribe to my local paper, but mostly for the Sunday coupons. They more than offset the cost.

 

[Offgrid Organic Farmer]

I feel there was a time when the 'news' reported things that had happened and it was up to us to decide how we felt about those things.

Now they report on their opinions and it is up to us to decide if we think it truly happened.

Since I retired, I have been interviewed on-camera by local TV news crews, four times. I have been left feeling very disappointed by the 'journalists' attitudes of what forms the 'news' now.

 

[rodi]

I 'contribute' or 'donate' to two news sources - the local PBS station and a local online-only news service Voice of San Diego. The local reporters at both are much better than the local tv stations. The local newspaper has laid off most of the news staff and fills the paper with mostly wire service content. I follow on twitter the few remaining SDUT reporters.

I've toyed with a digital subscription to the Washington Post for their DC/Political coverage.

 

[Ready]

Only paid newspaper that I have is a electronic edition of the Wall Street Journal... currently $20/month and I'm ok with that but much more and I'll probably cancel.

There is also a statewide electronic news service up north that I periodically make contributions to, but its not a subscription.

Why would you pay $20/month for WSJ when you can subscribe to Apple News and get just about every publication in existence, including WSJ, for $10/month?

 

[scrabbler1]

Back in my full-time working days, I bought a newspaper 1 or 2 days a week. That ended nearly 20 years ago. In some of my part-time working years, I bought a newspaper maybe once a week. Since I retired 12 years ago, I have bought a newspaper maybe once or twice total. Never paid for any online news service, as I am part of the mostly silent plurality who responded to this poll.

 

[audreyh1]

We use a news aggregator for most of it. Paid subscription.

 

[audreyh1]

Why would you pay $20/month for WSJ when you can subscribe to Apple News and get just about every publication in existence, including WSJ, for $10/month?

That’s what we use.

Goes Apple News cover all the WSJ content?