Poll: Who pays for their news?

[Gumby]

Newspaper is also good for egg shells and coffee grounds! Don't hold back!

Also, bird cage floor lining.

You should be composting all of that, including the newspaper.

 

[BeanCounter62]

Up until a few years ago, I avoided paying .... trying to save my $$.

It finally dawned on me that if I want a strong media, I should be willing to financially support it (ads alone can't keep them afloat).

So I now subscribe to NY Time, Washington Post and The Economist.
My kids and I do share some of these subscriptions.

I wanted to ... and tried to support the local paper, but finally gave it up. It was just too bad and too expensive for what we got. (Mostly syndicated articles and all too often errors/articles that didn't really continue on Page 4 or that were duplicated in different sections of the paper. Also a new Publisher who overrode his own Editorial Board with his own opinions. )

 

[aja8888]

You should be composting all of that, including the newspaper.

Just giving advice from observations on my part over the years.

There is no newsprint bought by this household. We are under "tight" budget control and decluttering simultaneously.

 

[rk911]

Just giving advice from observations on my part over the years.

There is no newsprint bought by this household. We are under "tight" budget control and decluttering simultaneously.

as mentioned earlier we subscribe to the local paper as well as 4-magazines. the old papers are tossed into the recycle cart every two-weeks. the mags either end up there or are given to friends. we don't compost...most organics hit the garbage disposal. the others are garbage cart bound.

 

[Gumby]

Just giving advice from observations on my part over the years.

There is no newsprint bought by this household. We are under "tight" budget control and decluttering simultaneously.

We don't get the print version of the paper anymore (no, not even the Waterbury Republican-American), but we do compost the output from our paper shredder, along with eggshells, coffee grounds and vegetable peels.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Husband and I subscribe to only remaining Baltimore daily paper. And it is EXPENSIVE. I think it gives us access to the online version as well, but we still like the actual paper. We like the NYT crossword puzzles that come with the Baltimore paper. We also take the local paper that comes out twice a week. I think the local is part of the Baltimore Sun. Where else would I put my vegetable peels?

I understand that a lot of papers are jacking up the price of their print subscriptions. I've heard $800/yr and up in some cases. It's a sad fact that publishers often see their print subscribers as people they can walk all over because they get the paper out of habit. It's not right, but most of the chains are publicly traded and, like many other corporations look only as far as the next quarterly report. If they never get another print subscriber down the road, they have a cash cow right now that they're going to exploit.

 

[martyp]

I pay for the New York Times online. I have also subscribed to the journal Science for the past 40 years even into retirement.

 

[azxracer]

Our local paper used to be better, getting equal complaints from both the left and right. It was bought by Ganett and has gone downhill. But I still subscribe to both digital and limited print. I may have to drop the print as it has just gotten so expensive ($35/mo). I also subscribe to WAPO, WSJ and NYT online. Also a couple of local reporting sites run by people that have been laid off from the local paper, $50/yr each.


Our free press, while vital to our country, has always has been the subject of criticism and charges of bias (often warranted). But it's still better than depending on the government for our news. I'm sure a lot of politicians will be calling for a government controlled News Monitor that would decide what's "fake news" and I hope enough people see the danger in that to resist any efforts in that direction. But there certainly are lots of examples in our own country recently of gov'ts trying that.

 

[tmm99]

NYTimes online.

 

[troutnut1]

Our news is so slanted I would never pay for it. They don't even allow comments here(Lee). Tried for a while some time ago and found logging in with password and getting ounded with ads was way more difficult than hacking in with a good ad blocking browser. I'd pay for real news, but not fake news. And all the real news seems to have been taken over by fake news.

 

[rk911]

...I still subscribe to both digital and limited print. I may have to drop the print as it has just gotten so expensive ($35/mo). ..

that was our experience with our local paper, $35 p/m. i called the office and asked if there were any other subscription options. turns out an annual subscription payable in one lump sum is just a bit more than $100. i made the change lickety split. the digital access is no additional charge.

 

[BeachOrCity]

Thank you for bringing to the forums attention the need for the fourth estate and the need to pay for it.

Right or left, the fourth estate is here to keep government in check. If it’s not paid for by subscribers it becomes beholden solely to advertisers and corporate interests.

The thread about crap writing got me wondering how many forum members pay to support a news source. I spent over 30 years working in daily newspaper journalism, and I see the industry as on the verge of death. COVID-19 probably knocked 25% out of an already shrinking revenue stream. A small-city daily paper in my area recently laid off its managing editor; she had worked there for 41 years.

DW and I have paid subscriptions to two local newspapers, a regional (statewide) paper and a national news source. I consider it money well spent. How about you?

 

[Midpack]

I’ve never paid for a news subscription, but I’m seriously considering Apple News+. It has a lot of good sources (WaPo, LAT, WSJ, etc. basically everything I’d read except the NYT - so better than any one major news subscription?) and they don’t allow fringe stories into the feed, unlike Twitter, Facebook for example. It also includes tons of magazines, but I get those for free from my local library.

 

[BeachOrCity]

I’ve never paid for a news subscription, but I’m seriously considering Apple News+. It has a lot of good sources (WaPo, LAT, WSJ, .

Just FYI, it (Apple News+) does not have the WaPo.

If it had the WSJ, NYT, and WaPo it would be killer IMHO.... but alas I don't think it is getting to be that "single subscription" many hoped it would.

Article here discussing apple news+ struggles w/ some papers:
https://9to5mac.com/2020/08/12/apple-news-wall-street-journal-2/

As an aside the WSJ $1 a week for a year deal is still on Today. I signed up. Always liked the WSJ, but just couldn't add another subscription at top dollar (normal price supposedly $40 / mo) to what I already pay for.

And for those that like the WaPo the best deal over the long haul is to subscribe thru amazon prime. (free for 6 months, then about $1 week).

Thinking about it, it seems like all the papers are moving to a buck a week deals usually for new subscribers.... I guess everyones threshold is different but to me if I read the paper regularly, contributing a buck a week to paying for real journalism seems totally fair. Much harder to justify $40/mo for digital access.

A funny story for ex journalists if no one else mentioned it. Years ago thousands of journalists were busted for all using newspaper account (I think it was WSJ). Thousands. Kind of seriously hypocritical. Since then WSJ beefed up their security to 5 devices max.

 

[Almost There 2021]

The only news you can count on is the weather. So far no agendas here even if they are wrong.....

 

[JoeWras]

The only news you can count on is the weather. So far no agendas here even if they are wrong.....

If only that were true.

Plenty of commentary and speculation added to every weather event as to the "cause" of it.

 

[Nemo2]

Plenty of commentary and speculation added to every weather event as to the "cause" of it.

That's not weather...that's agitprop.

 

[OldGuy]

Pay for the WSJ and the local (FL) Gannett rag during the winter (which gets worse all the time). Everything else I try to sneak into.

 

[audreyh1]

Just FYI, it (Apple News+) does not have the WaPo.

It does carry a large number of WaPo articles.

 

[Montecfo]

The only news you can count on is the weather. So far no agendas here even if they are wrong.....

Oh, weather DOES have an agenda. Not sure how you missed that.

 

[Gumby]

If only that were true.

Plenty of commentary and speculation added to every weather event as to the "cause" of it.

Weather always has and always will have a single cause -- differential heating, both horizontally and vertically.

 

[Leo1277]

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

I hope I haven't missed it in the subsequent discussions, but could you say a little more about the details of that service? Or is this just the Apple News that you mention you also have?

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?

As others also have mentioned, it seems the NYT is not in Apple News anymore, various other news sources in it offer only a subset of their full content; and it doesn't run on a PC. I am reluctant to enter the Mac world just for that.

Overall I don't mind paying for subscriptions, and ultimately this is what is needed to keep newspapers alive. The problem is that there are just so many news sources, and including the two international ones we are already paying for, there is just too much "subscription creep", including even just the trouble of keeping payment methods current should you switch your credit card, heaven forbid.

So to have a simple, wide ranging aggregator service seems really appealing to me. Just for the advantage of this "KISS" approach, I wouldn't even mind paying a bit more.

 

[MichaelB]

Apple News Plus is an aggregator. It usually offers a one month free trial period, but has a Black Friday / Cyber Monday offer for a free 3 month trial. I think I’ll sign up.

 

[stepford]

I just subscribed to the local big city paper - and it was because of this thread. So ER.org just made a tiny contribution to the survival of print journalism.

 

[euro]

I just subscribed to the local big city paper - and it was because of this thread. So ER.org just made a tiny contribution to the survival of print journalism.

Good on YOU!