Do You Still Get The Paper? If So, What's Your Go-To Section? (1 Viewer)

This is a sore subject for me.  

I get the paper.  I do not want the paper. It turns out the paper is free in my town. There are so many retirees here that they give away the Advocate because no one would buy it but everyone uses the coupons, they want the advertising revenue, etc.  

And you can’t cancel it.  I’ve tried.  At least a dozen times. It goes off my lawn immediately into recycling.  But they just won’t stop delivering it. 

Some neighbors and I are considering having the delivery guy arrested for littering. 

Long Ball Larry said:

Just the Sunday ny times, which then gives me the full digi sub.  

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Sunday Sun-Times does that, too.

rockaction said:

Mr. Ected said:

I grew up near Boston, and I found that I was using up my free articles so I bought in to the digital version. I like that I get notices on my Apple Watch, but may have to turn that off in the fall, since the Patriots make me sick.  :X

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I was just joshin'. I figured you had some connection. On a serious note, it would be rare if someone got the Globe as their national paper. It's usually WaPo or the NYT or the WSJ (maybe the Chicago Trib) for those that get national papers. 

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In the pre-WWW era of the late 80s and 90s, one of my jobs at an internship was to go thru a bunch of papers to collect info for the people in the office. We read thru a bunch of papers copied and physically clipped the articles, presenting a nice readable set of articles that were relevant to our work (international election monitoring and non-partisan democracy building). We read The Post (we were across the street from their HQ), The Washington Times (for even partisanship), The NYT, The WSJ, Miami Herald, LA Times, and only one paper from Boston, The Christian Science Monitor.

The amount of paper that we went thru in order to make those sets of 'clippings' every day was obscene by today's standards. Luckily we had unpaid interns to do this!

shuke said:

I agree that consolidation is very scary.  Just letting you know it hasn't totally absorbed the local reporting, at least here.

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That's why I like the Chicago Sun-Times. Partly owned by Rocky Wirtz, the Blackhawks owner, and the Chicago Federation of Labor.

I still get the NY Daily News and the NY Post delivered. I only get them for the sports to read with my morning coffee and at lunch. But during those times, I really enjoy having an actual newspaper to read. 

We also get the local Sunday paper, because my wife loves the coupons.  

rockaction said:

Christo said:

Chicago Sun-Times Sunday edition only. Read everything but sports and entertainment.

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Very interesting. Cool.

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Yeah, so many other ways to get that in real time it's not really worth it for those. The best stuff is detailed reporting on local politics.

Stopped getting the paper when I realized I could Light much smoker/grill with copies of the free local liberal rag that’s in racks outside most bars/restaurants.

GB free chimney starter material  

BobbyLayne said:

Are there good local papers? I thought everything local was basically owned by Gannett.

Per Wiki:

USA Today, the Detroit Free Press, The Indianapolis Star, The Cincinnati Enquirer, The Tennesseanin Nashville, Tennessee, The Courier-Journal in Louisville, Kentucky, the Democrat and Chronicle in Rochester, New York, The Des Moines Register, The Arizona Republic in Phoenix, Arizona, The News-Press in Fort Myers, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, and the Great Falls Tribune. Dozens of other smaller papers.

Last fall they refused to delay printing in order to publish the midterm election results. If they don’t GAF about their readers - and they don’t, it’s simply a series of revenue streams - why should readers support them?

Seen one, seen ‘em all. No differentiation in Newspapers these days with the the obvious exceptions of the larger, still independent big city papers.

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We subscribed to the Indianapolis Star (7 days a week) for many years, but the quality has dropped dramatically especially over the past few years.  I used to love reading the Saturday morning paper to get all of the local HS football and basketball game articles and boxscores.  The kicker for me was when they came out and announced they were moving all of that to the Sunday paper even though all of the games are played on Friday nights.  Plus most all of the national news and Life/Tech/Business stuff is straight from USA Today.  There is very little locally reported news even in the paper anymore with the exception of Sundays.  We finally dropped our subscription down to just Thursday (coupons for the wife) and Sunday and I don't miss the other days at all.

Man of Constant Sorrow said:

Honestly, my local paper kinda sucks. I can get better local news for free - and more up to date.

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Our local TV stations all have free local news online. One of those stations, WWL, is a prominent news powerhouse locally that also runs the one major local news radio station (870 AM).

rockaction said:

Does your restaurant give a senior discount? 

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No. They did previously, but I had to stop it. They were so used to giving it to every one that one of the ladies that had worked there a long time gave the senior discount to a 30 year old while I was standing right beside her.

pollardsvision said:

No. They did previously, but I had to stop it. They were so used to giving it to every one that one of the ladies that had worked there a long time gave the senior discount to a 30 year old while I was standing right beside her.

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Hoo boy. That's no good. 

This is why people don’t get hard copies of newspapers anymore.

https://imgur.com/gallery/cIPjmKE

Our local paper is pretty good and I subscribed for years, but then I got a bad delivery guy (paper in the street, paper on the roof kind of bad delivery) and I cancelled. The kicker is the guy kept delivering the paper. I called and made sure they understood I didn't want the paper anymore and I wouldn't be paying. A month goes by and I am still getting the darn paper. This Eastern European guy shows up at my door and identifies himself as my delivery guy and wants payment. I explained the situation and I thought I was going to have to go to blows with this guy. He was furious that first I wouldn't pay and second that I had the audacity to cancel. 

Earlier this year I am walking in the local supermarket and the paper people are there. This young college kid is trying to rope me in to subscribe. He starts out with a $10 grocery gift card if I subscribe for 3 months at like $6 a month for the Wednesday/Sunday paper. I am like no. He whispers hey, here are two more $10 gift cards--I just need to meet my sales quota and also here is the cancellation number.  So I resubscribed for $18.00 and got $30 in grocery gift cards and then promptly cancelled.