Newspapers: Do you still read them?

Apparently I'm younger than a lot of you (40). I haven't read a (physical) paper in...jeez, can't even remember when. 10 years? More? Now I just follow a bunch of news accounts on Twitter and read articles I come across that I find interesting.

One thing I've noticed over the last few years though...in the 90s as an adolescent asshole / teenager, daily I would go over the front page, local section, headlines in business section, and front to back in sports... I feel like I knew a LOT more back then about current events, and I absolutely knew more about teams, rosters, stats, and standings.

I can find out breaking news instantly now, but at the cost of additional information.

Wrote my graduation-requirement paper in law school about something sort of similar, and in doing so read a book called Republic.com by Cass Sunstein. He pretty much had my idea (or, until I read it, what I had perceived was my original thought...stupid me)... WAAAAAAAY back when, you'd open a paper and come across random headlines and stories and read what you thought sounded interesting, exposed to new ideas. Now? Just seek out specific sources, which, for most people are the echo chambers.

But damn do I miss sitting on the couch, not knowing what happened the night before, flipping pages, and going through all the transactions, standings, box scores...

Sadly, "print is dead"
-Spengler

I almost never read dead-tree newspapers anymore, but I've always been a news junkie. I'll scan the Google News feed for stories, so I'll pick up a number of sources from there. I try to get a range of political viewpoints, so I'll read WaPo, NYT, and Pro Publica, but also WSJ and National Review in addition to stories from the Cato Institute and the Hoover Institution. For local news, there's the Boston Globe and Providence Journal.

There's a lot of good information out there from a variety of think tanks and other organizations. So, by way of my phone or computer screen, I'm no longer limited to what's on the newsstand.

One of the downsides of online news is that people are able to put an incredibly narrow focus on the stories they read and the political viewpoint from which they're written. With a physical newspaper, the simple act of scanning an entire page could lead you to read story by a journalist that you would more likely not even see if reading online. Online news also makes it incredibly easy for readers to only select news (and sometimes "news") that is tailored to their existing confirmation biases (be it conservative or liberal). And that's not great.

I still pay for the online Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. WSJ trends more conservative while FT trends more liberal, so it's a good balancing of viewpoints. Both cover events much more thoroughly than the crap called news on Yahoo, MSNBC, etc. Sometimes you really do get what you pay for.

For the past 46 years I have spent an average of 2-3 days reading the news. I still get the paper delivered. I will not watch news on the tube. We get 24 hr news with wbz radio and I read all the fake news sites such as Cnn; Msnbc; Wapo; NYT; Usa Today; Yahoo. I also read enemy publications such as the Guardian and Financial Times and real news sources such as the Wall Street Journal and National Review. I have just begun reading the Washington Examiner, which I really like so far. Whenever I read something on the fake news sites I use search to find local sources, just to confirm that the absence of a race description or pic on fake news means the criminal was non-white.

I used to buy multiple newspapers daily. Now I do it often enough to be able to start a fire in my wood stove or start the coals in my charcoal chimney. And I’m a news junkie as well but it’s mostly consumed through a screen nowadays.

For me, I think there are two downsides to going digital for news. First, as El Duderino said, I used to be more up on sports. I would study the box scores, standings, stats and so forth. It was an enjoyable way to start my day. Now, I tend to browse a strip club site instead. Second, I need to very consciously make myself unplug from time to time. I realize how addicted I am to the fucking screen when I do and I’m not happy about that.

I also think that the echo chamber danger that others have mentioned is real. But I’ve always sought out a wide variety of sources and viewpoints and am slow to draw conclusions just because someone expressed something. So if anything, online information has caused me to become even more skeptical and cautious about viewpoint bias than I was in the days of print.

^^^ A by-product of the Covid pandemic shutdowns is that it made it incredibly easy for people to dive down some very deep rabbit holes with regard to extremely kooky "news" coming from both the left and right.

With paper news, once you hit the back page, you had to go do something else. With online news, you can go down a rabbit hole all day long and beyond.

I can't remember when I last read a paper newspaper. I read several online. I pay for a digital subscription to the New York Times, which is the best newspaper in the country.

Whatever happened to all the paperboys?

The last time I read a newspaper was when I was stationed in Japan during 1964-1965. I asked my parents to send me the Sunday only subscription to our local newspaper. They though that they would teat me an ordered a daily subscription. So I wound up getting 5 or 6 newspapers at a time that were 1-2 weeks old. But there was no English TV available and only armed forces radio available.

Today my next door neighbors are the only ones on my street still getting home delivery. I get all my needs from the internet.

The last time I saw a paperboy (which was many years ago) it was a guy in his 70s.

Used to get 3 newspaper s every day NY times, The Daily News and Newsday, moved to Florida and still got NY Times, Sun Sentiniel and alternatively the Palm Beach Post, and the Wall Street Journal became a thing for me, no longer get any paper except The Sunday edition of the New York Times but I have several online subscriptions the N Y Post, the Palm Beach post, WSJ, and a few trade publications I subscribe to.

I read RealClearPolitics which aggregates left, right, and center, as well as National Review.

To hell with most legacy newspapers which are just tendentious crap. NYT and WaPo in particular aren't just biased, they're straight up agents of the left.

^ Same with the Boston Globe. I cancelled my subscription many years ago.

I'll pick up whatever is laying out at the barbershop or wherever I'm waiting for whatever. Otherwise, it's all online or on TV.

I get my news from pornhub and xhamster - the online editions!

I no longer read a newspaper. I use the online version of WSJ primarily as my news source. I used to read the Sunday NYT - but it’s no longer worthwhile.

In NJ there is a paper The Star Ledger - and I haven’t read the paper version in about 10 years.

Subscriptions to the WSJ and NYT, as well as the business journals in places where my company does business. Browse them online and only rarely in paper form though they are available at work. Also, I check the google news feed every day and it’s really good at finding stuff that interests me, but also has the potential to be an echo chamber. Over the last year it’s started showing me both the CNN and Fox News links to the same story so I guess it learned that from my clicks.

We still subscribe to the local paper at my house. My wife reads it every day. I might glance thru some parts on some days when I'm there. It's a shell of what it used to be. It's basically day-old news. And not much then. About the only info I get out of it is what businesses are opening or what real estate deals are happening. Other than that, it's useless to me.

I do. But I don't pay for it. My Dad retired from working at the local paper, one benefit was paper for life. He died, but his last address was mine and it's still coming every day. Also NYT online.

I have never really liked newspapers.

SJG

I've about lost all confidence in the mainstream-medua - thus I get my news from one of the few trustworthy outlets; i.e. TUSCL

How do people housebreak puppies these days?

In order from most liberal to most conservative, I have online subscriptions to WaPo, NYT, Economist, WSJ. Often ignore the editorial content on WSJ-- but news is 1st rate. Also follow about 10 writers and economists on Twitter.

Love having a 10" tablet for news, Kindle for books.

“ Whatever happened to all the paperboys?” got old like me. i used to have a paper route back in junior high school and high school. bicycle route and then a car route. upland calif.
home of the first spearmint rhino and tropical lei.

I enjoy the process of going through the entire paper. It's 'my' time. I feel cheated by online news customized from cookies in our browser. Local papers are pretty useless, but I like WSJ, FT, CSM. Al Jazeera and RT are propaganda. If you really want to know what's happening you need to read as much as you can.

As far as something to read cover to cover, I’ll get whatever local free publication is out there. In San Antonio it’s the Current, Austin Chronicle, Denver Westward. I like seeing what is in my local area especially now that events are a thing again. And I’ll glance at whatever editorial stuff is there, sometimes it’s interesting sometimes not.

For regular news, it’s a hodgepodge. Reason shows up on my social media feed the most often tho

Still get local paper but mainly just scan the articles. Read it more for obituaries and the crossword

Not really. There is a local happenings paper called the Westword I pick up every once in a while and thumb through

I do read the Arts and Entertainment weekly newspaper, San Jose Metro. I trust it more than I do the so called Real Newspaper, San Jose Mercury News.

SJG

Get the Sunday NYT. Read most of it.

President Kennedy used to read the NYT and a couple of other papers every single day.

SJG

I miss the fabulous comic pages.