What Media Do You Pay For?
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Here's a fun little question today: What media do you pay for? What's on your list to subscribe to in the near future? We haven't talked about favorite magazines or how to keep up with current events in a long time — so let's discuss.
Our list of publications that we pay for includes:
- Digital subscriptions to The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal (but I'm thoroughly annoyed at many things about the WSJ, including technical issues — hold onto my sign-in info, dangit — so it's on my list to call and cancel). Note that Amazon offers free trials of digital subscriptions to several major newspapers.
- Digital magazine subscriptions to New York magazine (which includes The Cut, Curbed, and Vulture) and The New Yorker. The Atlantic is also on my list, and I just bought my father a digital subscription to Wired magazine.
- Hard copy subscriptions to magazines including Nutrition Action Newsletter (SO good! I'll have to do a Coffee Break on just that one), Real Simple, Travel + Leisure, Condé Nast Traveler, and Working Mother magazine. I'll probably let Real Simple expire. I just signed on to the travel mags recently and love them for ideas for future travel.
- Other media: We have subscriptions to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney Plus — we occasionally have one to Hulu but usually cancel it as soon as we're done with whatever we want to watch.
I'm not subscribed to any paid podcasts or the like, although I've donated to a few people here and there. And yes, I'm still struggling with information overload since I'm subscripted to approximately 10,000 free newsletters.
How about you, readers? What media do you pay for these days?
I pay for the New York Times, but am considering giving it up. It’s kind of petty, but I can’t stand the clickbait Buzzfeed-style headlines. They cheapen the news and often don’t actually align with the article’s content. A few examples from today’s paper:
“My Six-Year-Old Has Coronavirus. I’m Trying to Stay Calm.”
“I Miss A Lot of Things About the Office. My Breast Pump Isn’t One.”
“They Supported ‘Defund the Police.’ Then The Campaign Began.”
It’s just a really big pet peeve these days when all I want is clear, non-sensational news.
Argh I hate this headline style as well!
I quit NYT this week, actually, based on how they handled the WSB GME stories. It was the first time in recent memory that I had enough background knowledge on the issue to realize how incorrect and biased their reporting was.
I’ve long loathed the Daily by NYT but Monday’s potshot at the stock – recorded Sunday night, before they even knew what would happen in the markets in the morning – was just the icing on the freaking cake for me. Michael Barbaro can take his ethics-lacking self out of my podcast rotation for good. (Reference for his lack of ethics: the Caliphate podcast scandal. If you don’t know what that is, it’s because the NYT has underreported on it … because it’s a story about how the NYT’s reporting on a huge story turned out to be just absolutely, completely wrong, with a whiff of racism too.)
Can you post a link?
Here you go – https://www.npr.org/2020/12/24/949906978/star-hosts-ties-cloud-n-y-times-effort-to-restore-trust-after-podcast-scandal
I recognize most of those from today’s opinion section. I see your point, but it bothers me a lot less in an editorial context.
I also pay for the nytimes.
I have noticed a serious decline in quality at the Times over the past few months. The ratio of op-eds to actual reporting has increased, there are a ton of clickbait headlines, and the content is stale. Some articles stay on the front page for days, weeks, or even months. There is little to no substantive information on politics or pandemic science. The fact that you have to pay extra for the recipes annoys me.
OP here and I completely agree. The clickbait headlines combined with the stale content has really made me sour on the Times and I’ve subscribed for years. I’ve been trying to read my local news more and also The Guardian, but I wish the Times could just improve!
I totally agree — I just cancelled mine — I want to support serious reporting but found that I wasn’t finding hard reporting regularly. Also, having to subscribe to NY Times Cooking is irritating. But, I do have guilt — I long for the days (and perhaps they were biased) for reporting without so much partisan bias.
I hate that style of headline, too. I do get the NYT free morning digest, which is a good way to skim the updates.
I’ve noticed this and often the same story or op-ed will get re-branded with a different headline, causing me to click it again. Also, agree about the lack of alignment with content–I feel click baited a lot. Now I’m considering cancelling my subscription–hmmm.
I subscribe to digital NYTimes and Washington Post. Our household also subscribes to (paper) WSJ. TV news-wise, we watch CNN, CNBC, and ABC World News (David Muir).
Oops, hit send too soon. Just cut the cord and now subscribe to YouTube TV, but still learning my way around. We don’t have a lot of interest in the premium channels (like HBO). I use my sister’s Netflix (with her permission) and also subscribe to Hulu, but may drop Hulu. We aren’t big TV watchers beyond news.
You def don’t need both YouTube TV and Hulu. Advantage to YouTube TV is unlimited DVR, but it’s recently been annoying us in acting basically like exactly the cable company we replaced it with — raising prices consistently because it’s adding channels that we have absolutely no interest in watching.
I buy the NY Times digital subscription and books for pleasure reading. And Netflix, of course.
I have digital subscriptions to my local city’s newspaper (although its owned by McClatchy and not local) and the New York Times. I got the NYT subscription for the politics in 2020, and haven’t decided if I’ll keep it or not.
I don’t have any hard copy subscriptions. I would never keep up with that. I do continuously have multiple tabs open on my computer or phone of articles I want to read.
We have Amazon Prime Video and Disney +. I subscribe to one podcast, although that’s only for the bookclub, I rarely listen to the podcasts. I prefer to read than listen. My husband subscribes to a few podcasts, he’s a much more auditory learner than I am.
– print subscription to only the Weekend Journal edition of WSJ. I think the content is great, and I like the print edition for some reason. I’ve had the full digital and print subscription before, but found I couldn’t keep up with it so I didn’t think it was worth the money.
– print subscription to the state magazine of the state where we live. It’s just a fantastic magazine with great content and photos, so it’s a pleasure to have the print edition to read and keep.
– Netflix
– Spotify
We used to do the Saturday-Sunday WSJ too. I loved that the home and garden section was called “Mansion” instead.
We pay for Netflix, Spotify, Hulu (got a deal for Hulu + Spotify) and Amazon Prime Video. We haven’t had cable in over a decade.
Washington Post digital subscription – mostly for the weekly food live chats and the Capital Weather Gang blog, but end up reading the major stories anyway.
I pay for a lot – my city’s main newspaper, thr NYT, Foreign Policy (all online only) and NatGeo. I had TIME for two years but just dropped it.
I also have online Washington Post for free with my .gov email
Only Daniel Kanter’s patreon. Though now that I’m thinking about it there are other old house content creators I want to start supporting.
LOVE Daniel Kanter!
We have digital subscriptions to WSJ, NYT, WaPo, and The Atlantic. We also have a subscription to the New Yorker, but we have a hard time keeping up on that. And my husband has a subscription to the Athletic. My kids have subscriptions to several kids’ magazines too (gifts from grandparents): Muse, Cricket, Ask, The Week, and National Geographic Kids.
Pay for WaPo online, given an NYT digital subscription each year from my brother, use brother’s Atlantic login, and receive WSJ free through my MBA program
My village’s tiny newspaper, that has disappeared to almost nothing.
Harvard Health Newsletter
Science
NYT digital
Netflix
Amazon Prime
HBO (free w/phone plan)
I would like to subscribe to Wall Street Journal to get more info from that side, but I try to listen to their podcast regularly.
I have tons. Digital subscriptions to NYT and FT. I get the WSJ, Vanity Fair, Bicycling, Atlanta Magazine, and Reason in physical copies. I also pay to support some online media properties and podcasts via Patreon.
I used to subscribe to magazines because I love getting fun mail, but recently gave that up because I found most of the content was online anyway.
Netflix, Apple Music, Amazon Prime, Disney (might give this up), NYT crossword app. And I use my parents’ NYT and Crave (which is a Canadian streaming service that has HBO) – thanks Mom and Dad.
Washington Post and Slate Plus. I also get the NY Times through the library and used to get it through my work, but would probably pay for it if we had to. For video, we’re cordcutters, but do Amazon Prime and Netflix and then rotate through HBO, Hulu, Disney, Starz, Showtime, etc. depending on what we want to watch and who has promos (usually just one of these at a time). We also get Apple TV free for having bought something from Apple at some point and they keep extending it.
LOl @ Apple TV – I keep putting calendar reminders in my phone to cancel the promo and every time I go to do so, they’ve extended it for another six months. I got a free year originally in September 2019 and I still have it until July 2021 as of now!
hahaha same. I don’t even remember how I got it for free – and didn’t remember I had the free subscription – until I got an email last week telling me it was extended until July.
I got my free year originally when I bought a new phone.
Work provides WSJ and subscriptions to other more industry-specific publications, but PBS is the only media my household pays for personally.
Where do people get in-depth political reporting? I am interacting with a lot of lobbyists at work and would like to have some familiarity with the stuff they all seem to know through word of mouth–e.g., committee assignments, VP’s policy agenda, etc. I tried Politico but it doesn’t seem to go that deep.
Lobbyist here and Bloomberg Government is my everything, but I don’t know if there’s an option for normal people to get access to their content without the hefty prices my firm pays. Politico annoys me with their sensationalism.
YouTubeTV, Netflix, Amazon Prime video which includes HBO, and I think AppleTV.
I subscribe to several newsletters.
I stopped NYT because reasons, and I stopped getting hard copies of Vanity Fair and Rolling Stone after many years.
Our county library offers the NYT free (for 3 day increments) so I get that when there’s something I want to read. We also subscribe to a digital version of the local newspaper (hard copy delivered on Sundays), Smart Money (good investing/stock advice), and Business Week. For TV, we get Netflix and also currently have on a free 3 month membership to Apple TV. Music-wise, we now have a discounted Spotify plan ($10/3 mos.) and switch between Spotify and Pandora, taking occasional breaks in between.
On this topic, I subscribed to the NYTimes hard copy, Sunday only, to keep up with the news. It was too much paper, so I canceled. But almost every Sunday since then (about 2 months ago), I still get the paper! I feel like it‘s stealing, but how would you cancel a paper you are not paying for? Thanks for any advice wise hive!!
I subscribe to:
– my town’s adorable weekly newspaper – its coverage of council meetings, girl scout troop fundraisers, and road closures is exactly what I want in a news source;
– the paper from our closest “big” city, but their bias is seriously out of control and I’ve been thinking about cancelling – I haven’t read it in months because their writing is so slanted – I’m angry that their reporting feeds into the “the media can’t be trusted to report fairly” tagline of the right;
– three cooking magazines;
– six home magazines.
I confess to using my work’s shared log-in for WaPo and NYT if I need to.
I get the WSJ digital and the print Weekend Edition. I love, love, love the Weekend Edition (except opinion section). You should really try it, Kat, before you bail on the paper.
Print: HBR magazine (should cancel – the free blog and podcasts are enough), Wired, IEEE Magazine, and Milk Street (stopped the annual Milk Street subscription)
Digital: Kindle magazines include Bloomberg Businessweek, Southern Living, Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes & Gardens, This Old House and Real Simple; Garden & Gun (app); Hudson Valley magazine (app); The Economist (app); Through work: Law360 newsletter, PLI SmartBrief newsletter, and CTA SmartBrief newsletter.
There is definitely more content here than I can consume, but it is hard to give up any of it. Each has its own appeal. I really enjoy getting my magazines in digital form. When they came in print, I would get overwhelmed by them, and view them as a pile of unfinished tasks. Plus, with the Kindle, I can take screenshots of interesting pages and save them for later.
I pay for
NYT digital (but am lately annoyed with it like others above)
New Yorker print
Scientific American print (may cancel because I don’t often get around to reading it)
NPR sustaining membership
Netflix
Disney+
I have WaPo access through work. I am considering a subscription to the Atlantic.
Netflix, Amazon Prime, WSJ online (free through work), Real Simple magazine, and Food & Wine magazine.
News: NPR donation, local paper delivery (I really should go online only because I never read the paper copy), online access to NYT, WaPo and The New Yorker.
TV/streaming: Husband gets free cable as a work perk, so we pay for Netflix, Amazon, and Hulu/Disney+. I would be fine getting rid of Amazon for many reasons, but he insists we neeeeeeed the 2-day shipping (we do not).
Others: Local lifestyle magazine, Martha Stewart Living. I would get more but let’s be real, I wouldn’t read them all.
I pay for:
News: NYT digital, have been considering adding WaPo or WSJ.
Streaming: We cut the cord around 10 years ago – use Netflix, Hulu and Amazon Prime.
Others: Spotify. Mantra magazine in print.
Not really media but apps I pay for: Insight Timer app premium subscription. Peloton.
Like others, I pay for NYT digital, a local periodical, and Real Simple. I also get quarterly issues of The Paris Review, which is such a treat! I love the author interviews, and the quality of the short stories and poetry is incredible.
I have digital subscriptions for NYTimes, Washington Post and WSJ. I miss having the hard copy on Sunday, but the I couldn’t keep up with the stacks of paper, so we are just digital now.
We get paper copies of The Week, the Atlantic (a gift, barely read), Harper’s (ditto), and Consumer Report and some industry publications. and Ranger Rick for the kids.
For TV we still have cable (for my sports loving husband), and Hulu and Amazon.
For music we pay for Amazon and Pandora, though I occasionally use the free version of Spotify.
In before COVID times I used to go to the library on my day of and spend an afternoon reading-all the magazines. I miss that, but not quite enough to subscribe…
I am a “Patron” (at $20 / month) to my hometown alt-newspaper in a red but starting to shift smallish city. They have the usual arts and social stuff, but they really shone with some serious pandemic/BLM related reporting last spring. They were all over some city council shenanigans and got some very serious scientists onboard to do Covid reporting. They have no resources so it was really impressive. That’s when I signed up.
Currently, Spotify, Audible, HBO and loads of co-op inclusive TV (which I think would be the US equivalent of Acorn, National Geographic, Discovery, Paramount+ etc). And a few theatre memberships.
I’m considering Marquee TV, but haven’t tried yet.
If you had asked 20 years ago, the answer would have been (no streaming of course!) Vouge US, Vouge UK, GQ US and UK, Wallpaper, Instyle US and UK, Newsweek, Times, local and national newspapers for subscriptions, supplemented with other magazines, newpapers, books, film clubs, theatre, opera and ballet subscriptions etc. I think proportionally to income, I use very little money on media compared to earlier.
News: Pay for digital NY Times and WaPo, and have a recurring monthly donation to my local NPR station. We sometimes have a digital subscription to the local newspaper, usually around election times to see their endorsements.
Media: National Geographic is the only magazine I subscribe to, though I will occasionally pick up Garden & Gun or Southern Living. Streaming services: Disney+, Netflix, Amazon Prime, and we have HBO Max for free through our internet provider (I would probably pay for it occasionally otherwise). I will occasionally add Starz and AMC+ for particular shows and then cancel when I’m done with the season.
Online
– NYT
– WaPo
– Local public radio (membership)
Print: Atlantic, New Yorker (both gifts, love the content but don’t have much time)
For fun
– Amazon Prime
– Netflix
– Discovery Plus (mostly for the 90 Day Fiance).
No cable tv.
Online: Washington Post (where I get most of my national news), Seattle Times (local), NYTimes (although I may drop this because I hardly use it).
Books: Book of the Month, Page1 Books monthly subscription, Modern Mrs Darcy book club, $5 a month for Patreon for her podcast. Occasionally pay for Kindle Unlimited when there’s a good deal.
TV: I pay for Disney+ and Hulu for the family.
How do people feel about the New Yorker? I like it, but I can not keep up with it to save my life. I do look forward to receiving it every week but it feels wasteful. I subscribe to support journalism as well and it’s very expensive if you want one magazine. I don’t do well with their online content.
My subscriptions are Prime, Netflix, Just cancelled NY times and LA times. Hulu for free, Spotify and Starz (for Outlander). Boyfriend subscribes Youtube TV and Disney +. I also have subscriptions for two of the three credit bureaus but thinking of going to just FICO. I subscribe to WW and to a fitness subscription (looking to cancel). And, tried, and cancelled chess.com.