Best way to subscribe to newspapers?

hank

Appreciate any thoughts and feedback on how you source and read news. I’m a long time user of Amazon Kindle subscriptions. If you pay a small one-time fee for the device used, future content is ad-free. Yesterday, I subscribed to the NYT digital edition, but cancelled it this morning, reverting instead to a Kindle edition. What I’ve been able to understand in terms of comparison follows:


What’s Good About Kindle?

- Kindle apps install on virtually any device, including Apple products.

- Entire edition for each day downloads quickly.

- Downloads consume only modest amounts of data.

- Minimum of photos - a benefit if using a data capped internet service.

- Flipping through pages is easy and intuitive.

- Broad range of fonts and reader tools

- Cancel at any time for full refund of unused term

- Can be had ad-free

- Free trial subscriptions ranging from 2 weeks to 30 days


What’s Not Good About Kindle?

- While the national news is intact, much of the “local” news specific to publisher’s city (ie obituaries) may be lacking.

- Charts and tables generally don’t display well (if at all) on Kindle format.

- Cost ($20 monthly for NYT on Kindle vs. $15 monthly for the NYT Digital Edition)

- From what I’ve been able to learn, Amazon pockets about 30% of the subscription cost. And, since content is delivered ad-free, publisher encounters additional revenue damage. If you care about the viability of the press, this matters. https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/08/amazon-increases-revenue-share-for-kindle-periodical-publishers/


What’s Good About NYT’s Digital Edition?

- Discounted pricing ($8 monthly for first year)

- Packed with most of the content the paper edition contains.

- Reasonably easy to navigate

- Incredible quantity of high resolution photos (if that’s important to you)


What’s Not Good About NYT’s Digital Publication?

- Animated color ads keep popping-up inside or adjacent to the stories, distracting from reading. My ad-blockers couldn’t stop them.

- Consumes inordinately heavy amounts of data (if on data restricted internet).

- Heavy color photo content throughout is somewhat distracting and costly if you have data-capped internet.

- Inability to flip through entire publication and articles (front to back) by “turning” pages the way Kindle edition works.

- Functional Index - but no more so than what Kindle provides.

- Big carryover of proceeding day’s stories mixed in with the newer ones made it hard to ferret-out what actually happened in the last 24 hours.


Having cancelled the digital NYT after just one day, I’ve started a free trial subscription to the NYT on Kindle. It costs a lot more but “blows away” the NYT digital edition (IMHO) for utility and readability. I already subscribe to several science magazines and the SF Chronicle on Kindle. And Amazon’s Audible delivers a few stories from the WSJ and The New Yorker.

This is a well informed board. I know a lot of you subscribe to various publications. How do you reconcile all the different issues like: timeliness of delivery, readability and formatting, convenience, supporting quality publishers and cost?

msf

For about $20/mo, in areas where the NYTimes is delivered (nationwide), you can get a "real" Sunday paper plus two digital subscriptions (one for you, one to give away). Not a bad deal vs. $15 for the one digital subscription.

I'm using AdGuard and not seeing ads. Right now, it's telling me that it blocked 20 ads on the front page of the Times. I do see lots of ads when I use the smartphone app to read the paper. (Inactive, cheap phone, only used for things like reading the NY Times rather than paying extra for an e-Reader subscription.)

It's pretty hard to find, but if one has a subscription (I don't know if it has to be a delivery subscription), one can read the "replica version" of the paper, "turning" pages the way I do with my delivered paper. One goes to one's "account" page. On the lefthand side, under Account is Subscription, and under that, What's Included. Near the bottom is a link titled "Replica Edition".

Alternatively, and something I should look into more, is subscribing to publications directly through PressReader.

davidrmoran

I simply subscribe directly and auto-reup.

Digital only except for the paper Boston Globe, whose print run now is 100k or less.

Perhaps a dozen publications.

I suppose there are cheaper ways. But newspapers are suffering so, and this is such a golden age of longform analytic journalism, that it's important not just to mooch (which I also do). I would urge everyone to subscribe and pay. I worked for over a decade in the field.

hank

davidrmoran said:

I suppose there are cheaper ways. But newspapers are suffering so, and this is such a golden age of longform analytic journalism, that it's important not just to mooch (which I also do). I would urge everyone to subscribe and pay. I worked for over a decade in the field.

@davidrmoran +1

Thanks @msf, I looked for the “Replica” setting and it wasn’t there. Possibly, having cancelled earlier in the day affected that. Technically, I’m still subscribed for 1 month, but just deleted app from my device. Burning through data fast. With the Kindle edition $5 more than the standard digital price ($20 / $15) it may be that the Times is still doing OK profit wise. (That assumes the article referencing a 70% royalty going to the publisher is accurate.)

Deleted some ramblings ..... Let’s just say that cellular and internet service in the central and northern reaches of Michigan are lacking.

Mark

NYT (comes bundled with Spotify) and WaPo. Both digital and both work on all of my Apple devices (laptop, phone, iPad). $33/mo for all. I rarely if ever use the phone to look at any of it because I find it too small and there's too much scrolling around.

msf

hank said:

Thanks @msf, I looked for the “Replica” setting and it wasn’t there.

Rereading the instructions I wrote, I may have been a little sloppy. Once you get to the "what's included" link, you have to click on that link to get to another page. It's on that next page (if you're lucky) that there's a link to the replica edition.

At least I hope so. Good luck.

hank

@msf - I’m quite certain I clicked the “What’s Included” link. I was sometimes getting responses: “you’re not a subscriber” (likely because I cancelled). But very much appreciate your bringing it to my attention.

The content remains available to me for one month, since the $8 paid last night isn’t refundable. Who cares? The work some of these major publications do, including WSJ and FT, are invaluable. Be thankful.

Starchild

How about support your local library? NYT, WSJ, etc. all free to read. You think newspapers are hurting. If you have access to Proquest (basically if you're a student or work for a college), WSJ is available for free (or the college pays) and is straight forward article reads with no bones and whistles.

BenWP

I am happy reading the NYT online, but my wife wants the physical paper, so it is delivered daily. The academic version of the WSJ, paper and digital, is so cheap I keep re-upping, sometimes against my better judgement. (Kind of like looking in on Fox to see what real spin is.) As subscribers, we also get both versions of the New Yorker and the New York Review of Books. I have friends, one's an economist, who subscribe, cancel for a better deal, call the cable provider threatening to quit, and brag about how much money they save. I pay the piper and consider it worthwhile. I made a contribution to public radio, as it, too, is a great source of news.

davidrmoran

+1 x n