I decided recently that I did not want to keep subscribing to the Washington Post, as I have done for several years now; I've had my concerns, and their latest, mass layoffs were the final straw for me. Mine was about to renew, and it was time.
I did feel this message was a bit rich, though.
Nothing has changed? Did you not just lay off 30% of your staff?
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I did want to mention, for anyone who does not want to cancel theirs (no judgement) but has cost concerns, that when I was cancelling, it offered me a deep discount to remain a subscriber ($120 instead of $190).
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Although my parents watched the news when I was a kid (local news and then World News Tonight with Peter Jennings), as an adult I've never been a fan of getting news that way. Too loud and strident, too many commercials. I prefer reading it, and preferably first thing in the morning, when I'm not fully awake and therefore the bad news doesn't hit as hard (I'm too empathetic for my own good).
I am still a subscriber to the Boston Globe, which has been my primary newspaper all my life, since long before I moved to Florida*, and last year I subscribed to The Guardian to get a non-US news perspective. I get emails from the Associated Press as well, and though it barely counts, my mother gets the local paper.
*In fact, I subscribed in college
What else? Well, I subscribed to Vanity Fair this year, but that isn't exactly news, is it. I supposed it may fill in some holes that the Style section of WaPo did. And I get a lot of hockey news via The Athletic (they do cover plenty of other sports as well).
How do you get your news? Or, like me, do you struggle with taking it in these days?
And politics, specifically:
Some days I would like to go back to this:
I struggle with the news in any form these days but do prefer to read it. I follow international and even Fox News to get different perspectives. However, it's made me distraught about the lies and propaganda that so many are reading and believing. Can't win.
ReplyDeleteIt does feel that way, yeah.
DeleteThere was a piece in the NYT yesterday by a woman who talked to Bezos not long after he'd bought the Post, and he said all the right words about the necessity of a free press. At the time. But what she also said was that it was closer to 50% that just got laid off.
ReplyDeleteI canceled after Bezos killed the Harris endorsement, and they waved an offer like that at me. When I didn't bite, they offered .99 a month, and later 50 cents a month. But you have to read the fine print, which basically says they can change it at any time and what it doesn't say is they won't notify you when they do. And they will do it. So I have to check my credit card bill every month, waiting to play their stupid game again.
As long as Monica Hesse and Dana Milbank are still there... Plus it's really really hard to let go of one's lifelong and childhood newspaper.
But they don't let Dana report on Congress anymore because he was too good at it.
I definitely prefer to read it, but I also struggle with knowing how or where. It's all patchwork right now. I would be willing to pay for a reliable and relatively unbiased source, but what is that, exactly? I do read Heather Cox Richardson every day. For Canadian news I mostly do CBC.
ReplyDeletePatchwork is exactly right, but what else are we to do?
DeleteRight now, I mainly get my news from podcasts and newsletters. I like Crooked Media's nightly newsletter, Heather Cox Richardson, and Emily in Your Phone. And I listen to Pod Save America and Pantsuit Politics. I'm off IG for the time being because it was just making me too distraught.
ReplyDeleteI can understand that. It's hard not to feel overwhelmed.
DeleteI’ve been wanting to cancel our subscription to the Post for some time now but my husband was the holdout. This last eviscerating round did it for him as well. We’ve got a good local news source, unfortunately only digital, in the Baltimore Banner which now covers way more of Maryland than just Baltimore or Baltimore county. Between that and various youTube subscriptions I’m staying on top of the news. At least as much as I can stomach it.
ReplyDeleteHow much one can stomach is indeed the thing these days.
DeleteWell, as usual I agree with you, about pretty much everything. I’ve never liked getting news at night via the TV, though my folks, like yours, stick with this tradition. Especially with you-know-who’s voice, it feels like such an intrusion in our homes. And like you, I subscribe to the Globe and the Post and I also subscribe to the NYT. I was also dismayed and disgusted by the cuts at the Post and am on the fence about my subscription. But for now, I’m sticking with it, more to support the news staff, not the billionaire owner who could afford to never put profits before people but does so anyway.
ReplyDelete