I canceled both somewhere in the chaos of the election cycle because of the sanewashing of the orange menace, and, especially in the NYT, the way they hammered the Biden admin and glossed over all the positives. I find I don’t miss the NYT because a lot of their general editorial and layout choices (digital) are too irritating right off the bat, never mind the actual content.
The WaPo, on the other hand, I kind of miss. I canceled my subscription with several months still to run, so I did read here and there right through to the election. After that I could not bring myself to read the front page news, and mostly concentrated on other areas of the paper. Some of the Opinion writers are really good, and some of the less ‘hot topic’ reporting is also really good. And I love Carolyn Hax, who is caring and blunt, and usually an enjoyable read.
The paper is now offering a $60/year renewal. That’s less than a frou-frou latte I get every so often. I hate the idea of putting my money in a greedy, spineless billionaire’s pocket, but I’d be happy to pay Hax and the other writers who a truly fair and balanced, and DO try to shine light on the oncoming darkness.
I do subscribe to a couple of Substack writers, and The Contrarian, which is great. That’s Jen Rubin’s new outlet since she quit the WaPo.
Hrmpf. I’m just so sad and scared and angry that I hardly know what’s best to do any more.
(Washington Post)
You can usually get a better price if you call and ask. My digital Washington Post subscription is $29/year and has been for 4 years.
My NYT is $26.52/yr, billed $2.04 every 4 weeks. All Access digital plan.
I assume the OP and others are talking digital subs?
Mrs. FtG is a hands on person and needs something she can hold.
At the old place I had to call every year to get the much lower rate. A pain. But then they outsourced their customer help line. These people were just terrible. Not nearly as good discounts. And, of course, if you wanted to complain about their terrible help line, the paper directed you to … their help line. I’m sure all the complaints about their lousy service were passed on to the paper.
When we moved we got a Groupon for Sunday only which came with a digital sub (that I rarely used). The delivery was hit or miss and eventually basically stopped. I called and called and nothing happened. I then demanded a refund of the unused part. They said they didn’t do refunds but offered to extend my sub for the missing papers. Oh great, a longer period of time not getting the paper. I complained to the BBB and got a refund.
If your business is dying, treating your customers like garage may not be the best strategy.
If you want to kill off one particular division, it’s an outstanding strategy. They don’t want to be in the deliver a thing to the doorstep early in the morning business because very very few people want it and it’s a money loser.
I divorced, moved to a new town, and immediately subscribed to the local paper online at a cheap introductory rate. After five months I decided to cancel it because I was temporarily relocating to another state for six months and wanted to read their local news instead. When I called to cancel my subscription they kept offering me cheaper and cheaper rates to keep it going, but eventually gave up. What they didn’t do was remove me from their access list which would stop me from reading their paper digitally, which was now free to me. I assume they’ll figure it out eventually, but for now I can always access the paper if I’m ever curious about what’s going on back home.
I was addressing their customer help line, which would also handle online subscribers, non-subscribers who use their open web portal, etc. They were treating all customers like garbage.
I have a paper subscription to the local paper (Raleigh News & Observer), which has been steadily getting more expensive. Like Mrs. @ftg I like to have a physical paper to read, plus I like to do the puzzles which is hard to do on my computer (I keep having to clean the ink off my monitor). The paper subscription now comes with access to the online edition which, interestingly enough, includes an on-screen readable version of the print edition. It also has a lot of “Extras” not included in the paper edition. Over the past few years the print edition has been shrinking, with commensurate increases in cost.
I recently got an email with an offer to switch to an online only subscription at a 32% discount from my current paper subscription. To sweeten the deal, they’re throwing in a $25.00 gift card.
For purely financial reasons, I’d consider taking them up on this. However, this would cost me access to my beloved puzzles, unless I want to try to print them from the website. In addition to this meaning using my own paper and ink, the last time I tried doing this it was a major hassle. I haven’t checked lately, so maybe the process has improved. Still… Also, the last time I tried to read the comics page online it involved trying to enlarge the page and move it around. Again, more hassle than it may be worth.
Oh, and in the past when I put my paper delivery on “vacation hold” I would get credit for the undelivered papers. Now, presumably because even if the paper delivery is on hold I still have access to the online edition, that’s no longer an option.
We get a paper Chicago Tribune delivered daily. At this point, the main reson is to have my dog run out an get it each morning.
They were bought by a hedge fund whose clear intent was to progressively reduce costs and quality and increase prices. It really is pretty crappy now. They regularly increase prices for unclear reasons, causing us to call and negotiate, occasionally cancelling and renewing. We like the “tradition” of a paper morning paper with our coffee, but I’d likely discontinue it - if not for the damned dog…
Done - I was considering it anyway. But now I have too many substacks in my inbox every day and I’m going to have to cull something. They’re all too good, though!
The NYT has the highest subscriber base by far of any mainstream online newspaper. They are one of the few to successfully make the jump. Their puzzle section (Connections, Wordle, Spelling Bee) is crazily growing. My Millennial friends play them. You legitimately had an undeserved bad experience but they are nowhere near dying.
Substack can’t and won’t begin to replace newspapers like the N.Y. Times and Washington Post, especially when it comes to investigative journalism. Abandon them, and we’ll be left with a shouting match between blogs and incredibly biased pseudo-newspapers like the Epoch Times.
True but maybe a few will get bored and start to read the journalism and their crossword puzzle was always a huge draw so they are being true to themselves
I agree and I do still subscribe to the NYTimes. I bailed on the Post, but I may go back.
You mean like the sources who now have front row seats at the Pentagon?
But these other subscriptions give access to intelligent commentary, in many cases from individuals who fled the big newspapers. And they are worthy of notice.
Every now and then I re-watch All the President’s Men just to weep and remind myself what real journalism used to look like.
But they’re gleaning their information from the big news sites. Some link to those sources right in their Substack post. Granted, they also use other sources in addition to the big mainstream media.
I recently made a thread about the death of local news reporting and the Star Ledger, the only newspaper that covered New Jersey. Last weekend they published their last print edition. It’s really been mostly dead for awhile. Most of their reporters were let go long ago. The online addition is filled with articles like “These are the top 25 places to get pizza in the state.” Local crime reporting is just republishing press releases. I don’t know how they will survive.
