Poll: Who pays for their news?

[Out-to-Lunch]

In Milwaukee, the call letters WTMJ stand for The Milwaukee Journal.

I live a short stroll from WTMJ's studio, and (in best Johnny Carson voice), "I did not know that."

 

[tuckeverlasting]

Years ago I loved to read the print newspaper from cover to cover. Now I greatly prefer the digital editions, not least because the reader comments are frequently the best part! Often erudite, thoughtful and witty--at least in the papers I subscribe to.

 

[Freedom56]

We have the Wall Street Journal digital subscription only.

 

[rk911]

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.

don’t forget the afternoon Chicago American which later morphed into Chicago Today. both were PM dailes. in those days we got the Trib in the morning and the American in the afternoon. as a nerdy kid i read and enjoyed both.

 

[rk911]

WGN and the Chicago Cubs. Ahhhhh
summer!!!

yup. brickhouse, boudreau, harry, Chicago’s Very Own (they recently sold out to NextStar...Dallas, i think). cubs are now exclusively on their private/subscription streaming service (except for the occasional national televised game).

 

[Montecfo]

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.

To the door? Mine are barely on the driveway approach. Had I thrown papers way down there I would have had a lot of upset customers on my paper route.

Instead I just got huge quads from hauling those papers around on my bike with the massive saddlebags. Not that I minded. I loved my job.

I'm just amused that I get a Christmas card every year (in with the paper) and a self addressed envelope from someone I have never met who drives the route and barely gets the paper on the driveway approach.

Then again maybe that works, just not with me.

 

[Lsbcal]

That’s what we use.

Goes Apple News cover all the WSJ content?

I was wondering the same thing. Apparently you get a "curated sample" of the WSJ according to https://www.macworld.com/article/3385029/apple-news-plus-faq.html

 

[Ready]

I thought all of WSJ was included in Apple News but I only subscribed to it for a month so I could be wrong. It’s free for the first month so if you are thinking it might be a good fit just sign up and try it out and cancel if you don’t like it.

 

[rk911]

To the door? Mine are barely on the driveway approach. Had I thrown papers way down there I would have had a lot of upset customers on my paper route.

Instead I just got huge quads from hauling those papers around on my bike with the massive saddlebags. Not that I minded. I loved my job.

I'm just amused that I get a Christmas card every year (in with the paper) and a self addressed envelope from someone I have never met who drives the route and barely gets the paper on the driveway approach.

Then again maybe that works, just not with me.

i had a large route ...125+ papers...for my hometown twice-weekly, thursday and sunday. papers were dropped off late wednesday and saturday nights...sometimes very late. i had to fold and rubber band them (had to buy my own rubber bands) and then up early...earlier on thursday to be done in time for b’fast and school. loaded up my bike..rain or snow..with a bag balanced on the handle bars and more stuffed in the rear twin baskets. had to reload the bag at least once.

after i turned 16 i used our VW bettle, loaded all the papers and walked the route. i’d park on a street, grab the papers i needed and fast-walk down one side and back up the other side delivering as i went.

every month i’d have to go door-door and collect for the papers. most people psid on time but there were always a few “catcha next month, kid”. i had that route for 5-6 years. taught me responsibility.

today our paper is delivered to our doorstep daily. we also get a Xmas card from the carrier and, renembering my days as a carrier and as a thank-you for bringing the paper to the door, we are generous with him

 

[Koolau]

Our local paper is now a combo of the two papers that existed when we moved here a dozen years ago. They kept lowering the price of delivery to the point that we finally began a subscription - primarily for DW's crossword fix and the occasional ad/coupon. For national news, the paper is useless. Having said that, the local TV news is no better for national. I despair for actual news coverage, local, state or national, print, broadcast and internet. I'll leave it at that since YMMV.

 

[Koolau]

To the door? Mine are barely on the driveway approach. Had I thrown papers way down there I would have had a lot of upset customers on my paper route.

Instead I just got huge quads from hauling those papers around on my bike with the massive saddlebags. Not that I minded. I loved my job.

I'm just amused that I get a Christmas card every year (in with the paper) and a self addressed envelope from someone I have never met who drives the route and barely gets the paper on the driveway approach.

Then again maybe that works, just not with me.

Our carrier is so good that s/he does a bank shot off a wall, and lags the paper up to the door s/he can not even see! I am impressed. Hope s/he remains our carrier. Oh, and s/he RUNS to and from the elevator - I assume so that s/he can catch the elevator before it leaves. THIS year at Christmas, there WILL be an envelope on our gate for our carrier! YMMV

 

[Navigator]

We’ve always had a subscription to the local paper, which is now digital only. I used to read free news on the internet, but got tired of the low quality. We now subscribe to both the local paper and the NYT. I’m happy with the depth of coverage in the NYT, but sometimes think about adding a subscription to the Washington Post.

 

[Lsbcal]

We’ve always had a subscription to the local paper, which is now digital only. I used to read free news on the internet, but got tired of the low quality. We now subscribe to both the local paper and the NYT. I’m happy with the depth of coverage in the NYT, but sometimes think about adding a subscription to the Washington Post.

We get the NYT for $4/mo and the local paper for $10/mo digital. In the past the carrier delivery was very unreliable. This is partly to support quality news. Sometimes the NYT can feel too biased but there are some good quality articles too. I try to avoid opinion columns.

 

[Montecfo]

Our carrier is so good that s/he does a bank shot off a wall, and lags the paper up to the door s/he can not even see! I am impressed. Hope s/he remains our carrier. Oh, and s/he RUNS to and from the elevator - I assume so that s/he can catch the elevator before it leaves. THIS year at Christmas, there WILL be an envelope on our gate for our carrier! YMMV

It does vary!

 

[pb4uski]

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?

I haven't tried Apple News but from what I've read Apple News only includes a subset of the WSJ. Does it include WSJ editorials? Letters? Also, I sometimes comment on WSJ articles and I suspect that you have to be a subscriber to do that.

 

[audreyh1]

I was wondering the same thing. Apparently you get a "curated sample" of the WSJ according to https://www.macworld.com/article/3385029/apple-news-plus-faq.html

That's what I figured. Still more than I need. I'm able to read most of the articles of interest.

We have the Apple News subscription plus a NYTimes digital subscription. No print media or TV/cable. I've been reading way more news than normal this year! So I've been glad for the subscriptions.

Way back in 2000, newly retired, we gave up on the local paper delivery because we were traveling a great deal, and they couldn't keep our stop newspaper requests straight. We canceled our subscription. Went to online only (free at the time) and never looked back!

In 2010+ our neighbors would have us pick up their papers if they were delivered while they traveled. And they always invited us to read them and were always shocked when we returned them unopened. We explained that we simply don't read newspapers. They just couldn't ever grasp that. This went on for years.

 

[CoolRich59]

I'm a long-time subscriber to the Wall Street Journal.

 

[CoolRich59]

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

The standard rate is pricey, but if you check their website they offer some pretty good discounts. It's also relatively easy to get them to get them to extend the discount for renewals.

 

[Koolau]

It does vary!

Quite rite! Our previous carrier must have thrown the paper FROM the elevator. If it slid under the gate, I was happy. Otherwise, I was out in the common hall at 2:00AM in my tidywhiteys picking it up. NOT a pretty site though YMMV.

 

[CoolRich59]

They ran a lot of screamer headlines in all caps back then. I think I even recall them using exclamation points.

You mean something like this?

 

[ziggy29]

I subscribe to both a local and national news sites (the latter when they are offering deals, not the full "rack rate"). Frankly, I have less trust in "free" news because they have to make money somewhere, and in many cases, that comes from partisan interests willing to subsidize what I consider to be propaganda.

 

[NW-Bound]

Who needs to pay for news, when you can get tremendous amount of faked news free from the Interweb?

Case in point: Recently, I ran across a pseudo news channel on Youtube that claimed the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China had collapsed. Whoa! That would mean millions of Chinese were being swept out to sea.

I thought the news would hit the headlines on all major news channels, but nothing was mentioned anywhere on any legitimate news channel when I searched. It's amazing how blatant lies could be told on the Web and worse, sometimes repeated again and again until it became truth.

And of course I have refrained from mentioning political fake news that have been running rampant. Good grief!

 

[travelover]

Who needs to pay for news, when you can get tremendous amount of faked news free from the Interweb?

Case in point: Recently, I ran across a pseudo news channel on Youtube that claimed the Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze River in China had collapsed. Whoa! That would mean millions of Chinese were being swept out to sea.

I thought the news would hit the headlines on all major news channels, but nothing was mentioned anywhere on any legitimate news channel when I searched. It's amazing how blatant lies could be told on the Web and worse, sometimes repeated again and again until it became truth.

And of course I have refrained from mentioning political fake news that have been running rampant. Good grief!

It is not fake news, it is exclusive access to alternative facts.

 

[NW-Bound]

Whatever things or stories you want to hear, there's a version of it on the Web if you look. And it's all free too.

Paid news channels don't give you what you like to hear, and they even have the audacity to charge you for it. Gah!

 

[Nemo2]

If it's not in the Babylon Bee it didn't happen.