2 ms·
I'm a paid subscriber to the digital edition, but I won't be renewing -- had to actively unsubscribe in advance because last time they sneakily renewed me soone
by blisterpeanuts 11y ago
I'm a paid subscriber to the digital edition, but I won't be renewing -- had to actively unsubscribe in advance because last time they sneakily renewed me sooner than I expected.
WaPo was a great newspaper that today has become rather shallow and partisan and has lost whatever claim it once held to being the "paper of record" along with NYTimes and WSJ.
The age of great journalism is over and there's no jobs anymore for hard charging investigative reporters. Bloggers are trying to assume that role, but we're still in the shake-out period of hundreds of websites all vying for our attention (and ad views and monthly fees).
The reader comment sections that accompany almost every article are a joke; it's almost impossible to have an intelligent, threaded conversation because the boards appear to be completely unmoderated and are dominated by highly opinionated trolls and bullies who post one-liner insults and demeaning rejoinders. Once in a while there's an interesting posting, but it's like finding a needle in a haystack. The online reader population appears to be highly partisan, largely Democrats, and some of them come off like full time DNC employees whose job is to attack the opposition no matter what. A waste of time.
The editorial page leans left, more so than the New York Times. The news articles range from near-duplicates of AP/Reuters dispatches to occasional incisive in-depth reporting from some of the few good journalists still on staff.
I don't understand why Bezos chose the WaPo, unless it's the beginning of a publishing empire that he hopes to build. One might have expected him to start with a more solid publishing organization, but who knows, maybe he'll invest more money into hiring good journalists and other professional publishing staff who can bring the paper back up to code. I'm not holding my breath on that appealing outcome, however, since trends appear to be in the other direction of clickbait and sensationalism.