Poll: Who pays for their news?

[euro]

Old school: paid subscriptions to paper editions of WSJ and NYT

......and I'm gifting a paper subscription of the San Antonio Express News to my MIL because she enjoys it and I want her to keep up with the news.

 

[rk911]

been reading a daily newspaper since i was a freshman in high school (1964). dad and i shared the morning Tribune over breakfast. all thru college i had a daily subscription to my hometown paper and that has continued to this day. i look for local, factual, hard news stories of immediate conscern to myself and my wife. this, usually, does not include political or sociological stories presented by the AP, NYT, WaPo, etc. we rarely watch TV news unless they're covering a major hard news story.

 

[Chuckanut]

I pay for the WSJ and the local newspaper.

The WSJ is what it is - a conservative national NY-DC beltway newspaper with a clearly economic and business interest in events.

The local paper is a bit of a disappointment. Most of the articles are from the NY Times and Washington Post - more NY-DC point of views. Also they have some stories from AP and several times a week a local in-depth story. Local sports coverage is good, of course. Half the time their editorial opinions make me want to stand up and shout "Yes. I've been waiting for somebody to say that!'. The other half of the time I want to shout "Why the heck am I paying for this stupid rag!" I guess that's not a bad balance today. Oh, most of the opinion columns are the usual list of NY-DC beltway columnists. Boring.

 

[Rocket Man]

We pay for our small town weekly print newspaper which is strictly our town news. It is worth it for that. We also get e-editions from two larger towns nearby. In the last couple years they have both been purchased by large newspaper companies and the quality is worse and the papers are shrinking. One no longer puts out a Monday edition. They both insert A.P. news stories for national news. Those A.P. articles are so biased they are unreadable and you would be a misinformed person if those were your sole source of news. I just skip those pages completely at this point.

 

[davebarnes]

We pay $1100/year for the print versions WSJ 6 days a week and the Sunday New York Times.
We like paper and we have the money.

 

[savory]

I pay for online subscriptions to local paper, Washington Post, & NYT. I want to do my part to help the national papers do investigative journalism.

 

[Out-to-Lunch]

Since the OP is in my region, I may have to qualify my answer. I checked "local" newspaper in the poll, but, as you know, the Journal-Sentinel is one of two quasi-state-level papers.

But to the larger audience, I will say that I subscribe to my local paper to support it, but get most of my news from free national sources. Not yet willing to pay for a national source, but also unwilling to "cut off" my local paper and paper deliverer.

 

[CRLLS]

We used to get a paper edition of our local paper. They seldom, if ever, managed to heed our requests for halting delivery when we left for a week or so. We would come home with papers strewn about the driveway telling every crook that we were gone.

I don't subscribe to online papers because I like to get varying perspectives. Not just one publication's twist.

 

[Ready]

I’m really surprised to see how much people are still paying for newspaper service. I thought $10/month was a bit much to get a digital subscription to thousands of newspapers and magazines. And I already give Apple enough money for ICloud storage and AppleCare so I don’t really want to give them any more. But in retrospect, $10/month seems like a bargain compared to what people are paying for print subscriptions to WSJ and NYT.

 

[ohyes]

We are having a difficult time giving up our subscription to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Northwest AR edition. We have subscribed to the state newspaper for about 40 years. Sunday is the only paper edition. The ADG provides an iPad (at no cost) to access M-F editions - as long as one keeps a daily subscription... Walter Hussman, the publisher, is an interesting guy and we hope this sustains the paper for a very long while.

We have a Washington Post digital subscription, only because of $39/year digital subscription. That deal ends in May 2021 for us.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

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.

When times were good, my old paper published five editions and covered about 30 suburbs and exurbs as well as their school districts (plus the central city, of course). We didn't cover every meeting but were always there for annual budgets and other significant dates.

When the money started drying up and we dropped some suburbs, more than one government official expressed regret that our reporters weren't covering them anymore. They found value in the transparency.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

been reading a daily newspaper since i was a freshman in high school (1964). dad and i shared the morning Tribune over breakfast. all thru college i had a daily subscription to my hometown paper and that has continued to this day. i look for local, factual, hard news stories of immediate conscern to myself and my wife. this, usually, does not include political or sociological stories presented by the AP, NYT, WaPo, etc. we rarely watch TV news unless they're covering a major hard news story.

When I was a kid one of my nightly chores was to walk down the block to the corner store to pick up an early edition of the "World's Greatest Newspaper." The daily Trib cost 7 cents back then; I got to keep the change from the dime as my reward for the errand. They ran a lot of screamer headlines in all caps back then. I think I even recall them using exclamation points.

When I was 6 years old I had some cornstalks growing in the back yard. DM called the Tribune newsroom and somehow convinced them to send out a photographer to get a shot of me and my corn. It must have been a slow news day, because they actually published the photo -- I still have a copy of the 60-year-old paper.

 

[TriumphTR3fan]

We subscribe to two local & one national newspapers.

 

[DrRoy]

I do not but DW bought one and I do read it.

 

[JoeWras]

When I was a kid one of my nightly chores was to walk down the block to the corner store to pick up an early edition of the "World's Greatest Newspaper." The daily Trib cost 7 cents back then; I got to keep the change from the dime as my reward for the errand. They ran a lot of screamer headlines in all caps back then. I think I even recall them using exclamation points.

When I was 6 years old I had some cornstalks growing in the back yard. DM called the Tribune newsroom and somehow convinced them to send out a photographer to get a shot of me and my corn. It must have been a slow news day, because they actually published the photo -- I still have a copy of the 60-year-old paper.

Cool!

Trivia: the TV channel "WGN" was named after World's Greatest Newspaper.

Growing up in Chicago, you had your choices. The Trib leaned right, the Sun-Times leaned left, and the Daily News was your convenient after work reading.

Dad liked the Sun-Times since he was a union man. He also liked the small tabloid format. I liked the simpler style compared to the complicated reads in the Trib. But it seemed like both covered everything. Despite the Sun Times left lean, they were pretty harsh on the City administration from time to time. That's what I miss: balance even if if there is an editorial lean.

 

[Big_Hitter]

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?

same - we take the idaho mistakesman and the idaho press

 

[CRLLS]

Cool!

Trivia: the TV channel "WGN" was named after World's Greatest Newspaper.

Growing up in Chicago, you had your choices. The Trib leaned right, the Sun-Times leaned left, and the Daily News was your convenient after work reading.

Dad liked the Sun-Times since he was a union man. He also liked the small tabloid format. I liked the simpler style compared to the complicated reads in the Trib. But it seemed like both covered everything. Despite the Sun Times left lean, they were pretty harsh on the City administration from time to time. That's what I miss: balance even if if there is an editorial lean.

Let's not forget the WGN radio station too. At one time, the papers were printed in The Tribune Building and the radio station was also based in that building up until recently the building was sold.

I delivered the Chicago Daily News when I was a kid. IIRC it was 54 cents per week, which I had to collect each week. I paid for the papers and I kept the difference (plus any tips). It may have been my introduction into managing money.

 

[JoeWras]

I delivered the Chicago Daily News when I was a kid. IIRC it was 54 cents per week, which I had to collect each week. I paid for the papers and I kept the difference (plus any tips). It may have been my introduction into managing money.

It was a really good educational job, wasn't it? You had to manage everything, including pre-payment on the curbside jobs.

My next door neighbor buddy did the Sunday paper outside of church gig for a few years. He had to pick up his bundles at some ridiculous time. I helped him "stuff" the papers. All the ads and coupons were not automatically inserted. Then he had to manage his money and returns.

For my help, he usually bought me a snickers bar and a chocolate drink. I was easy.

 

[euro]

I’m really surprised to see how much people are still paying for newspaper service. I thought $10/month was a bit much to get a digital subscription to thousands of newspapers and magazines. And I already give Apple enough money for ICloud storage and AppleCare so I don’t really want to give them any more. But in retrospect, $10/month seems like a bargain compared to what people are paying for print subscriptions to WSJ and NYT.

No doubt about it! The 3 paper subscriptions I mentioned above probably run $1500-2000 a year (depending on some “specials” I’m able to squeeze out every now and then. That is A LOT! But I feel strongly that we have to support independent news sources (all political slants) - it is vital for democracy, so to me, it is worth the cost.

 

[CRLLS]

I had forgotten about "stuffing" the advertising section on Sundays. In my case, the papers were counted, tied and delivered to my house. I had to "tri-fold" and tuck them to toss on their porches. I had to cross a state highway to deliver inside the local bar/bartender. I got 2 cents per paper for my efforts. Some people I had to carry for a couple of weeks if they weren't home when I tried to collect. I couldn't stop delivering due to lack of payment. The paper wouldn't have allowed it and I never would have thought about doing it. All the benefits of being a child laborer for a cash job where I paid no income taxes.

 

[Mr._Graybeard]

Let's not forget the WGN radio station too. At one time, the papers were printed in The Tribune Building and the radio station was also based in that building up until recently the building was sold.

I delivered the Chicago Daily News when I was a kid. IIRC it was 54 cents per week, which I had to collect each week. I paid for the papers and I kept the difference (plus any tips). It may have been my introduction into managing money.

Many newspapers co-opted the electronic media by launching their own radio and TV stations. In Milwaukee, the call letters WTMJ stand for The Milwaukee Journal. The call letters for its electronic rival, WISN, stand for Wisconsin News, Hearst's former afternoon paper.

The ease with which newspapers survived the broadcast era probably made management complacent about the Internet. Yes, some big-city papers went under in the '60s and '70s, but plenty of cities had two newspapers at the turn of the 21st century.

When Craigslist rolled out, it was the beginning of the end. Classified ads were the lifeblood of newspapers. Then the real estate ads dried up when Realtors put their listings online. Then job listings and car dealers went away. About the only classified listings newspapers have been able to hang onto are death notices.

Edit: I always thought of the Daily News as the thinking man's newspaper. It was Mike Royko's first home, IIRC.

 

[jfn111]

My father was a political reporter first for the Mpls Star and Tribune and then for the Saint Paul Dispatch & Pioneer Press.
My first "job" was delivering the Tribune before heading off to elementary school. I would use a shoulder strap news paper bag Mon. thru Sat. and a yellow pushcart for the heavier Sunday paper. (That was fun when it was -20 and snowing )
I still pay for the daily paper to be delivered to the door.

 

[MBAustin]

We get the local daily paper delivered, plus the Wall St. Journal. We also have an NYT digital subscription and I recently added Washington Post on a promotion (will probably drop it after that expired). We also support our local NPR news station. I'm considering also adding a digital subscription to my small hometown paper (far away) just to support local journalism, which I think is endangered and very important.

 

[JRon]

No subscriptions here. Local paper was all old news and when they quit covering local sports I ended my subscription. We had WSJ for a while, but ended that too.

 

[steelyman]

Cool!

Trivia: the TV channel "WGN" was named after World's Greatest Newspaper.

Growing up in Chicago, you had your choices. The Trib leaned right, the Sun-Times leaned left, and the Daily News was your convenient after work reading.

Dad liked the Sun-Times since he was a union man. He also liked the small tabloid format. I liked the simpler style compared to the complicated reads in the Trib. But it seemed like both covered everything. Despite the Sun Times left lean, they were pretty harsh on the City administration from time to time. That's what I miss: balance even if if there is an editorial lean.

WGN and the Chicago Cubs. Ahhhhh
summer!!!