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So I've been debating subscribing to the NYT, but the sheer number of options has delayed me from doing it. My wife and I both love crosswords and would love t

by rblatz 9y ago

So I've been debating subscribing to the NYT, but the sheer number of options has delayed me from doing it. My wife and I both love crosswords and would love to get access to the crosswords, and I'd like to get a subscription to support journalism. Last time I looked it wasn't really clear to me which subscription(s) I should get so I delayed the choice. Now I find myself actively avoiding most NYT links because I want to "save them" for the stories I'm really interested in which means in general I almost never click on a NYT link anymore. So now I'm wondering if I should even bother subscribing. This seems like it will make me even less likely to subscribe, especially since I don't want to reward this business tactic.

nrhk 9y ago
In my opinion, journalistic integrity is more important than ever and I'll gladly pay for quality instead of being swamped with clickbait. I don't want my journalist to be beholden to advertisers instead of trying to provide the most truthful, unbiased facts to their readers.
- cwg999 9y ago
  Unfortunately they will be beholden to their owners and the bias of their editors, but I agree that is better than clickbait at any rate.
- gt_ 9y ago
  Full disclosure: the tactic mentioned in this post roped me into subscribing last month. But, I did not do it for the same reasons as you. I just noticed I wanted to read more articles they were posting. The Guardian is a bit different situation because they have the Greenwald/Snowden legacy under their belts and a general reputation for truthiness, but I struggle to see how subscribing to NYT inspires better journalism. Is the theory that less dependence on ads would allow them to publish material on touchy subjects that would otherwise get demonized? I would like to support a cause like that but I don’t see how this would be it.
no_protocol 9y ago
I haven't reviewed the policy recently, but I believe the digital crossword subscription is totally separate from the digital news subscription. So if you are more interested in the crossword, you can subscribe to just that without subscribing to news. And if you did subscribe to just news, it wouldn't come with the digital crossword.
kyrra 9y ago
I got a WSJ subscription a year ago and have really enjoyed it. Specifically I've enjoyed the paper version of the paper. Online news sites are too easy (maybe just how I've been conditioned) to glance over headlines and only read the stuff I'm interested in. With the paper version I find myself reading news stories I would have otherwise ignored. Having a curated set of articles that a physical paper gives you is nice. There are ways this can be done with digital news sources as well, but the different medium has worked out for me to help broaden the topics I read.
- jefe_ 9y ago
  Have you discovered their e-reader? Stumbled across it accidentally one day and have found it perfect for posting articles on bulletin boards without cutting up my paper, you can print PDFs of individual articles, choosing between text or photocopy: http://ereader.wsj.net/ http://ereader.wsj.net/
  - hkmurakami 9y ago
    Oh this is neat! Thank you.
notyourday 9y ago
"open in incognito window"
- duskwuff 9y ago
  Obnoxiously, I've seen some sites start using JS to block users in Incognito mode. (For example, MIT Technology Review -- technologyreview.com -- does this on their article pages.)
- votepaunchy 9y ago
  Or save to Instapaper.
rm999 9y ago
I just signed up for the nytimes a couple days ago, and was exactly in the same position (I wanted articles + crosswords for myself and my SO). You want All Access which gets you two accounts with full access including crosswords (including mobile app). For the first year it's 8 dollars a month all-in, which seems like a pretty amazing deal. I think this may be a temporary sale. https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/multiproduct/lp8XKUR.html https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/multiproduct/lp8XKUR.ht...
lostlogin 9y ago
It’s a pity there isn’t a model like music has (bet no one has ever said that before). A subscription service which divvys out my subscription fee to the authors (or papers?) that published the stories I read. Search by region, topic, author, paper etc. I’d pay more than I pay for Spotify and I currently pay zero for news.
- bllguo 9y ago
  Blendle? I'm sure there are others like it, too. It feels like I see comments like yours every other day on HN. Clearly these services need some better marketing.
  - lostlogin 9y ago
    I’ll check it out, thanks.
- rhizome 9y ago
  I believe this is one of the features of the Brave browser.
lars_francke 9y ago
If you're thinking about subscribing and you want to save some money just cancel. I've been subscribed for a month and this is the result: https://imgur.com/fHETGuW https://imgur.com/fHETGuW (that's been going on for three months or so). I found the app hard to use. I think the problem I had with it was that it wasn't clear to me which articles are new and which are old. But I'm not sure anymore.

by rblatz 9y ago

nrhk 9y ago

In my opinion, journalistic integrity is more important than ever and I'll gladly pay for quality instead of being swamped with clickbait. I don't want my journalist to be beholden to advertisers instead of trying to provide the most truthful, unbiased facts to their readers.

cwg999 9y ago
Unfortunately they will be beholden to their owners and the bias of their editors, but I agree that is better than clickbait at any rate.
gt_ 9y ago
Full disclosure: the tactic mentioned in this post roped me into subscribing last month. But, I did not do it for the same reasons as you. I just noticed I wanted to read more articles they were posting. The Guardian is a bit different situation because they have the Greenwald/Snowden legacy under their belts and a general reputation for truthiness, but I struggle to see how subscribing to NYT inspires better journalism. Is the theory that less dependence on ads would allow them to publish material on touchy subjects that would otherwise get demonized? I would like to support a cause like that but I don’t see how this would be it.

no_protocol 9y ago

I haven't reviewed the policy recently, but I believe the digital crossword subscription is totally separate from the digital news subscription. So if you are more interested in the crossword, you can subscribe to just that without subscribing to news. And if you did subscribe to just news, it wouldn't come with the digital crossword.

kyrra 9y ago

I got a WSJ subscription a year ago and have really enjoyed it. Specifically I've enjoyed the paper version of the paper. Online news sites are too easy (maybe just how I've been conditioned) to glance over headlines and only read the stuff I'm interested in. With the paper version I find myself reading news stories I would have otherwise ignored. Having a curated set of articles that a physical paper gives you is nice. There are ways this can be done with digital news sources as well, but the different medium has worked out for me to help broaden the topics I read.

jefe_ 9y ago
Have you discovered their e-reader? Stumbled across it accidentally one day and have found it perfect for posting articles on bulletin boards without cutting up my paper, you can print PDFs of individual articles, choosing between text or photocopy: http://ereader.wsj.net/ http://ereader.wsj.net/
- hkmurakami 9y ago
  Oh this is neat! Thank you.

notyourday 9y ago

"open in incognito window"

duskwuff 9y ago
Obnoxiously, I've seen some sites start using JS to block users in Incognito mode. (For example, MIT Technology Review -- technologyreview.com -- does this on their article pages.)
votepaunchy 9y ago
Or save to Instapaper.

rm999 9y ago

I just signed up for the nytimes a couple days ago, and was exactly in the same position (I wanted articles + crosswords for myself and my SO). You want All Access which gets you two accounts with full access including crosswords (including mobile app). For the first year it's 8 dollars a month all-in, which seems like a pretty amazing deal. I think this may be a temporary sale. https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/multiproduct/lp8XKUR.html https://www.nytimes.com/subscription/multiproduct/lp8XKUR.ht...

lostlogin 9y ago

It’s a pity there isn’t a model like music has (bet no one has ever said that before). A subscription service which divvys out my subscription fee to the authors (or papers?) that published the stories I read. Search by region, topic, author, paper etc. I’d pay more than I pay for Spotify and I currently pay zero for news.

bllguo 9y ago
Blendle? I'm sure there are others like it, too. It feels like I see comments like yours every other day on HN. Clearly these services need some better marketing.
- lostlogin 9y ago
  I’ll check it out, thanks.
rhizome 9y ago
I believe this is one of the features of the Brave browser.

lars_francke 9y ago

If you're thinking about subscribing and you want to save some money just cancel. I've been subscribed for a month and this is the result: https://imgur.com/fHETGuW https://imgur.com/fHETGuW (that's been going on for three months or so). I found the app hard to use. I think the problem I had with it was that it wasn't clear to me which articles are new and which are old. But I'm not sure anymore.