For most of the past four years, I've subscribed to both the New York Times and the Washington Post. (And to The Atlantic, but I don't really consider that to be news, for the most part.)
As part of a general effort to read more things with staying power (e.g., books) rather than things that won't matter so much a month later, I've unsubscribed from both newspapers recently.
The New York Times is hard to unsubscribe from. For that reason alone, I will never subscribe to them again. If you can sign up via their webpage, you should be able to cancel a subscription via their webpage. You shouldn't have to call a live person and listen to them try to talk you out of unsubscribing. That's terrible.
The Washington Post was easy to unsubscribe from. If I want more news someday, I'll gladly resubscribe to WaPo.
But I don't feel like I need to. While I have unsubscribed, I have not deleted their app from my phone. Back when I was subscribed, I didn't want a zillion notifications, so I checked only the box for super important breaking news, and not the boxes for politics or sports or entertainment or whatever. Nonetheless, I still got more notifications than I really wanted -- 5 to 10 per day, it seemed.
Now that I'm not subscribed anymore, I still get just as many notifications, and I can read all the articles I'm notified about. Sometimes there will be a pop-up saying "If you want to read even more articles, you can pay us $9.99 per month." But man, you're already making me read more articles than I want to. I really don't want more.
So anyway, if we're going to use this thread to provide each other with general tips and tricks for consuming news, my first tip is: download the WaPo app. Pay the $9.99 per month if you want, or don't, but either way you will get bombarded with mucho news.
Here's another tip that I think has a lot of value for people who don't already know it: Don't watch TV. Just don't. I mean, you can watch Better Call Saul. But don't watch TV news.
Also: Come on, don't click on Breitbart or Infowars or whatever. You know better than that. The New York Times is undeniably biased in a lot of ways (mostly not ideological, although it does have an ideological bias as well), but it's just not in the same ballpark as the loony sites.
Okay, that's it for my tips. What are yours?
As part of a general effort to read more things with staying power (e.g., books) rather than things that won't matter so much a month later, I've unsubscribed from both newspapers recently.
The New York Times is hard to unsubscribe from. For that reason alone, I will never subscribe to them again. If you can sign up via their webpage, you should be able to cancel a subscription via their webpage. You shouldn't have to call a live person and listen to them try to talk you out of unsubscribing. That's terrible.
The Washington Post was easy to unsubscribe from. If I want more news someday, I'll gladly resubscribe to WaPo.
But I don't feel like I need to. While I have unsubscribed, I have not deleted their app from my phone. Back when I was subscribed, I didn't want a zillion notifications, so I checked only the box for super important breaking news, and not the boxes for politics or sports or entertainment or whatever. Nonetheless, I still got more notifications than I really wanted -- 5 to 10 per day, it seemed.
Now that I'm not subscribed anymore, I still get just as many notifications, and I can read all the articles I'm notified about. Sometimes there will be a pop-up saying "If you want to read even more articles, you can pay us $9.99 per month." But man, you're already making me read more articles than I want to. I really don't want more.
So anyway, if we're going to use this thread to provide each other with general tips and tricks for consuming news, my first tip is: download the WaPo app. Pay the $9.99 per month if you want, or don't, but either way you will get bombarded with mucho news.
Here's another tip that I think has a lot of value for people who don't already know it: Don't watch TV. Just don't. I mean, you can watch Better Call Saul. But don't watch TV news.
Also: Come on, don't click on Breitbart or Infowars or whatever. You know better than that. The New York Times is undeniably biased in a lot of ways (mostly not ideological, although it does have an ideological bias as well), but it's just not in the same ballpark as the loony sites.
Okay, that's it for my tips. What are yours?
Last edited by a moderator: