For those among us who subscribe to the New Yorker: how do you read them? Are you able to read an entire magazine on a weekly basis? My wife had two longish sojourns in the States, and rather than pay the insane cover price ($8.99!), she bought a subscription instead. Then she shlepped the magazines back with her so I could read them.
I read them pretty much cover to cover, so there’s no way I can finish one a week. It’s got me wondering about other readers - do you read the entire magazine, and how long does it take you to read it?
I once went ahead and got a subscription at one of the insane discount rates, and my experience was very much like this scene from The Good Place.
I’m putting it in spoilers because nobody should watch it if they haven’t seen the show, and if you haven’t seen the show you could go watch it.
To answer your question directly, I don’t think I ever read one cover to cover.
I subscribe electronically, I use the app, and I never read all of the articles. The articles I do read aren’t even that great. I was just looking for something to do besides doomscrolling.
I am trying to end my subscription, FWIW. I say “trying” because even though I’m getting charged, they keep saying they can’t find my account.
I have the same issue with the Economist. For me, it just was too much work to keep up with.
Can’t you cancel the payment with your credit card company?
I also never finished an issue…or very rarely…and I finally cancelled my subscription. I liked a lot of it, but I felt guilty recycling half unread magazines.
Damn. That was what was going to replace my New Yorker subscription!
I’ve been a subscriber since 1982. I’m sure I’ve never read an issue cover to cover.
But I always at least skim the table of contents, look at all the cartoons, read the movie reviews, and check out the cartoon caption contest.
When I do find time to read an article, I’m rarely disappointed. I feel guilty for not reading more of them.
And, yeah, that cover price is outrageous. It was $1.25 when I first started reading it.
mmm
I skim the entire issue first, scrupulously checking out each cartoon, noting articles and casuals (as they term them) of interest to me, and then I take the issue into the bathroom or the hot tub and read (or start to read) those articles, sometimes with great interest and amusement. There’s usually at least one, sometimes two or three, articles or reviews I’m interested in. Then I leave the magazine next to the toilet or the hot tub so I can peruse the articles of secondary interest if I find myself ensconced for a long time without reading matter.
It works out pretty well for me. I also listen to the articles (quite a few) that are available to be heard aloud on my phone when I’m walking about for recreation, sometimes when I need to be hands-free while cooking.
Ditto, on most counts. Now they also send me a daily email with highlights from the current issue. I find that I can read/skim much of what I’m interested in while on breaks at work, making it much easier to get through the paper issue before they start stacking up on the coffee table. And I get to play the daily name drop quiz.
A friend showed me one of her “weekly goals for the year” lists. One thing she had listed to do each week was:
Skim The New Yorker, and read selectively if interested.
That freed me up to guiltlessly read it the way I do:
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Glance at cover, think “That’s clever!”.
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Flip through it from back to front so I can study the cartoon contest first. Appreciate the creativity of ordinary readers.
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If busy, flip through the rest, but only reading the cartoons.
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Realize I’ve already gotten my money’s worth, and that I’m in a much better mood.
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If time, glance at articles and turn up the bottom corner of the page if I want to read it later.
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Read articles before I recycle it (when the next issue comes).
My wife and I subscribe to the New Yorker - she tends to read the paper copy from cover to cover, I read the articles that appeal to me electronically (the only problem is that the emails I get highlight old articles too - and some of those appeal to me, too, so I read stuff from the 80s and 40s and 2000s as well as the new stuff).
You should add the letters to the editor (“The Mail”) to your list. Sometimes they’re more interesting than the articles they refer to.
Lol, I was just thinking of taking them up on their $50 print+electronic subscription offer.
I subscribe to Vanity Fair and have the same problem - lots of reading, too much. Adding TNY isn’t going to help, but to be fair, my main reason for subscribing to VF is access to their database of articles.
Same thing with TNY. And their sites.
I had a New Yorker subscription at a cheap trial rate. Then they renewed me at the full rate long before the trial subscription was due to run out.
I canceled the subscription. There are occasional good articles but it’s not worth the full rate to me or dealing with scammy practices.
I’ve had a subscription since right after I got a job, 1981, except for the period when That Woman was editor. Before my kids were born I did read them cover to cover (and they were a lot thicker back then) but I accumulated a year’s backlog which occupied by bedside table.
Noe I skim. No time for articles I’m not really interested in.
SInce covid first hit, we’ve been spending more, not on things we need but on businesses we want to support.
I guess it took a pandemic for me to realize how much every business relies on its customer base.
So we’ve been subscribing to paper papers and magazines, and electronic versions (less clutter that way, but I’ve got to get the New Yorker in print form).
I start at the back, check the caption contest, check the table of contents, look at the cover title then check the cover, read any of the short pieces at the front that look interesting, sometimes look at Shouts and Murmurs, skim through the cartoons then sometimes dive into any articles that look interesting. Then I realize that I’ve been sitting in my car in the driveway for 45 minutes after picking up the mail and I put the magazine down, go inside and usually finish at least one full article over the course of the next week. No, those are not seven New Yorkers opened to half-read articles in my passenger seat. What would make you think that?
I’ve subscribed since around 1982. (Or it might have been 1983.)
I still take the paper version. Used to read them cover to cover. Now, even though I should have more time, I read what I can in the time I allow. I always read the fiction piece and often many of the other articles. I’ve learned a lot from this magazine through the years and I value what they have to share.
Yes, it’s an expensive publication compared to many. Mine is more of a “legacy” subscription at this point. I know how hard publications are struggling, so I continue with the subscription even if I no longer read it as thoroughly as I once did.
This is my bathroom!!
David Remick just sent an email to subscribers listing the reporting and such your subscription has supported. I subscribe to the paper NY Times for the same reason. I have to keep myself from trying to take it as a charitable deduction. But it was all worth it when they broke the Trump tax returns story.
Subscribed. Electronic editions only. Thanks for the thread!