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Exeunt the New York Times, Pursued by a Bear

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Just canceled my print subscription  to The New York Times. And since the pitch they made their wretched phone CSR throw at me to try to keep me in their clutches was so damned obnoxious, I canceled the online sub, too.

By the time I got off the phone, I was ready to wring that kid’s neck…and it wasn’t his fault, he being a schlep who was just doing his job. Thank heaven for small favors: I may go hungry, but I don’t have to do a job like that.

The cost used to be pretty reasonable, because I got it while I was teaching at ASU — way back in 2002, the kid said! — when they were practically giving it away to students and faculty. But prices being what they are, every year they’ve inched up the rates. It’s now $34 for print delivery with “free” online access included.

Problem is, often the thing isn’t delivered. A couple of weeks ago they failed to deliver the Saturday and the Sunday edition, even after I called (twice!) to complain.

When you do that — call to bellyache that the paper wasn’t delivered — their CSR will say they’re crediting your bill. But of course, they don’t.

The biggest problem with home delivery, though, is simply that I don’t have time to read a newspaper anymore. Much as I love the Times — and I do enjoy reading it — the only clear time available to read the paper is the ten minutes or so it takes to bolt down my breakfast. There’s usually a little coffee left after that, but nine times out of ten, I’m writing promotional copy, wrangling Amazon, or chasing e-mails over the last of the coffee. Two or three hours of work have already been done by then: only another ten or twelve to go.

Really: I don’t think ten minutes of hurried reading is worth $408 a year.

I can get the print AND digital versions of The New York Review of Books (which I dearly miss) for $75 a year. I can get The Economist for $52 a year. Both of these are delivered by mail, so one does not depend on the bums (not an exaggeration) to bring it to your door and drop it in a puddle of water.

Between you and me and the lamp-post iPad, I think I can get by with the news reports and opinion that are available for free online.

Most of the time, instead of sitting down and reading a newspaper, I graze for news online during short breaks between projects. Best sources around:

Hmh. No wonder I don’t have time to read the Times…

So, what are your favorite news sources? And BTW, while you’re at it, don’t miss this news flash. 😀

 

 

 

 

 

 

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8 thoughts on “Exeunt the New York Times, Pursued by a Bear”

  1. …..” and drop it in a puddle”……Too funny. And IMHO this will be the “death” of newspapers. I love the NY Times and the Washington Post….I use to pay too much money for the Sunday NY Times for DD1 for a class when she was in college and got to read the week old paper when she came home on week ends. I enjoy the Washington Post and like your Times’, delivery was spotty and when I called to complain the CSR would say they would credit my bill. I explained I didn’t want credit I wanted the paper. The credit nor paper ever arrived so I quit. Recently I “re-newed” with the Baltimore Sun…for $9.93….that’s the Wednesday, Saturday and Sunday AND access to the digital version….for a year. But recently the digital version is on the “fritz” and I haven’t bothered calling. And I’m pretty sure I won’t renew…. And this is where it ends…when old folks like me who still enjoy getting a little ink on their hands have had enough…and stop subscribing. I haven’t seen a viable way yet to monetize the newspaper on line. And over $400 for the Times is just crazy…wet or dry….

    • Well, all you have to do is look at their ads and the content of their “Style” section to see they market to the 1 percenters. I guess normal folks like you and me aren’t good enough for news anymore.

      • I KNOW…Who buys this stuff? I have noticed the ads are very elitist OR very Wal-Mart with a bit of Target in between….But it seems to me retail is in trouble, in that the folks with a “couple of nickels” mostly Boomers are getting past the acquisition stage and are now into “downsizing”. Add to this the “millenials” that are coming along have hefty student loans and a stagnant economy to deal with….Doesn’t leave much of an audience for “day- old news printed on dead trees dropped in puddles”….Troubling when you think about it…..

      • It escapes me!

        One of the guys in our business group is a high-end travel agent. Every now and again he brings in fancy publications targeting his upscale clientele. Last week he handed out copies of The Robb Report. Holy mackerel!

        Some people really DO have more money than either taste or good sense.

        It probably does reflect the polarization of America’s economy (and culture) into haves and have-nots. No question that’s the way we’re going.

  2. I used to love the Sunday paper, but they kept taking more and more content out and raising the prices. At a certain point, I kept it up because we got a lot of coupons and it still worked out to a net gain. Then, it no longer did so I’ve cancelled and we’ve been just fine. They throw a free local paper on the driveway every once in a while that has coupon inserts, so we end up just fine as it was, and saving money in the process.

    • Our Sunday paper has almost NO content. It’s just a pile of ads and coupons. I guess if you’re into couponing, you’ll feel it’s worth paying to have merchants deliver a stack of come-ons to you. But if you’re paying for news…?

      The local paper shrank the comic strips — those they kept — so small you need an electron microscope to read the damn things. They laid off the investigative reporting staff and a whole lot of the general-interest reporters, replacing news with fluff. We had a mayoral campaign here a few years ago that received almost NO newspaper coverage, Sunday or otherwise.

      I canceled the Sunday Republic on the Monday after the morning that I found I’d thrown the ENTIRE weighty mass into the recycling bin except for one news section, which was only about six or eight pages long.

  3. I can get by with the free 10 articles a month of the nytimes, washington post (online), the atlantic (online) and the harvard busiess review (online). Occasionally, I’ll read an article in slate (again… online).

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