Subscribing to the New York Times

Uhm, Buck, I normally agree with you, but he did say that was ONE reason, not THE reason. Plenty of people can still be informed even if they don't read the NYT. It certainly isn't the be-all and end-all of journalism.

It's exactly this kind of elitism (big paper vs. small paper, NYT or WP vs. everyone else) that bothers me.

 

This is exactly what happened to me when I had the Sunday Times ... now I just read online.

 

If I had the extra money - and time to read the paper - I would subscribe to the NY Times.

 

It's the best paper I don't have time to read.

I read a ton just to keep up on my own assignments. I wish I had time for culture right now, but I don't.

I like their science section a lot in particular.

 

The Times is a great nwspaper, no question. But I can count on one hand the number of times I've made it all the way through an NYT in one day. And I'm a pretty fast reader.

 

That's why it's great. Best bargain in the whole world ... granted every newspaper is.

 

Oh, there's no doubt the NYT is a great newspaper. (Duh.) Even a two-time Bush voter like me can't argue that. It has absolutely no equals.

But I've always been in awe of anyone who subscribes daily and makes it through enough of the paper to make a subscription worthwhile. I used to get it on Sundays, and I'd struggle all week to make a dent in the reams of material I "had" to read.

Now, I subscribe to the Christian Science Monitor (a 20-page tabloid Mon-Fri) and the Economist (a 90-ish page weekly) and count myself pretty well informed, with a lot less newsprint lying around my apartment.

 

I lived in Manhattan and now live in Brooklyn. We subscribed to the Times for a few months when we lived in Manhattan and they could only get delivery right three or four times a week. When they weren't failing to deliver the paper, they were screwing up our bills so we canceled. We tried to go back to the Times in Brooklyn figuring that we just had a stupid carrier, same problems. Now we get the Wall Street Journal. They've never screwed up my bill, always had the paper there in the morning and, honestly, i like the product better. Sure, there is no Sunday paper, the Saturday edition is kind of the redheaded stepchild and there are no coupons, but I find that I read almost every article in the Journal. So as far as I am concerned. Fuck the Times. Give me the Journal any day but Sunday.

 

Tough to argue with the CS Monitor and Economist combo.
I keep thinking about the NYTimes, usually when I get one of their letters in the mail asking me to subscribe, but I haven't done it yet.
I could use Marriott points and get the WSJ for free, but I haven't done that either.

 

"Now, am I smart because I read the Economist, or do I read the Economist because I'm smart? What a quandary to ponder."[/theonion]

 

It's really the same quandary when someone tells you they read the Econiomist. Are they smart or just trying to act like they are.

 

Well, here's the Onion bit that I badly misquoted. It's a hoot:

http://www.theonion.com/content/node/34138