5 ms·

Another vote for The Economist. It is a weekly publication with good writers. Meaning: it is rarely, if ever, sensational, and covers prominent issues around t

by sbf501 4y ago

Another vote for The Economist. It is a weekly publication with good writers. Meaning: it is rarely, if ever, sensational, and covers prominent issues around the globe so I stay informed after about 60 minutes of reading. I still haven't figured out which way the editorial staff swings because they do a good job of keeping explicit bias out, but they seem to be left of center. I also subscribe to The Atlantic. They are solid long-form reporting, but occasionally they get a really far-out article. I used to get The Baffler, great out-of-the-box ideas, but the content was too depressing.

the_biot 4y ago
The Economist is very definitely on the right economically, and on the left socially. In other words it's classic liberal, and they regularly make that clear. They've been going with more opinion pieces in the last few years, which is not an improvement IMHO. Only real downside to The Economist though is their app. It's a complete embarrassment, the worst I've seen. It's comically bad, don't-just-fire-them-shoot-them bad.
- n8cpdx 4y ago
  The app could be better, but the access to actual human narration of all articles outweighs the downsides IMO. Maybe the reading experience is bad? For listening, I download the weekly copy and that makes it a bit more reliable. If anyone from the economist is listening, please give me the option of putting the next 15s, previous 15s buttons on the Lock Screen (it matches what I do for podcasts).
  - the_biot 4y ago
    Yes, the reading experience is what's so bad. Very often when you're reading it'll suddenly crash, or blank the page, or switch to a random page in the next issue, etc etc etc. A few months ago they broke swiping, if you can believe that. It's now suddenly hard to swipe to the next article, because it wants to scroll up or down instead. How the hell do you break swiping in an Android app in 2022! And to top it all off, the insult on top of the ridiculously bad experience: the regular pop-up (when you're reading), to ask how you like the app? Type your feedback here! Which is 100% ignored of course, for YEARS. I've taken to just sending in "fuck you". What, me bitter?
    - n8cpdx 4y ago
      It sounds like the Android app is worse than the iOS app. Unfortunately, that means my recent discovery won't help you, but will hopefully help others: With the Apple News app, you can log in to your Economist account and get access to the economist content through the News app.
    - antognini 4y ago
      For what it's worth I was having exactly the same experience as you on my Pixel 1. But a few weeks ago I upgraded to the latest pixel and the app works great now. I suspect that the app is just so heavy and bloated that it performs really poorly on older phones. Not that there's any excuse for that. All it should be doing is displaying some text so you'd think it would be pretty lightweight.
- skrebbel 4y ago
  I agree that the app is awful (in particular, it's both slow and buggy), but the content in the app is amazing. Eg it has posh Brits who sound like they got plucked straight from the country club reading every single article out loud, it's super handy and delightfully done.
- fumplethumb 4y ago
  I’ve been reading the Economist digitally using their app for years. They had a few issues over the years - I think they prevented copy/paste for a minute. I was pissed about that. But now I love the app. The typography is decent, they support light/dark themes, you can play human-read audio of every piece individually, etc. I’m curious, what are your problems with the app?
kesava 4y ago
+1 for Economist. Don't let the titles of New York Review of Books and London Review of Books fool you. They do much longer view of contemporary news but thru book review. Most news is probably not worth following every day. The rearview mirror of a weekly magazine gives better context than trying to follow most news the same day when details are still ongoing.

by sbf501 4y ago

the_biot 4y ago

The Economist is very definitely on the right economically, and on the left socially. In other words it's classic liberal, and they regularly make that clear. They've been going with more opinion pieces in the last few years, which is not an improvement IMHO. Only real downside to The Economist though is their app. It's a complete embarrassment, the worst I've seen. It's comically bad, don't-just-fire-them-shoot-them bad.

n8cpdx 4y ago
The app could be better, but the access to actual human narration of all articles outweighs the downsides IMO. Maybe the reading experience is bad? For listening, I download the weekly copy and that makes it a bit more reliable. If anyone from the economist is listening, please give me the option of putting the next 15s, previous 15s buttons on the Lock Screen (it matches what I do for podcasts).
- the_biot 4y ago
  Yes, the reading experience is what's so bad. Very often when you're reading it'll suddenly crash, or blank the page, or switch to a random page in the next issue, etc etc etc. A few months ago they broke swiping, if you can believe that. It's now suddenly hard to swipe to the next article, because it wants to scroll up or down instead. How the hell do you break swiping in an Android app in 2022! And to top it all off, the insult on top of the ridiculously bad experience: the regular pop-up (when you're reading), to ask how you like the app? Type your feedback here! Which is 100% ignored of course, for YEARS. I've taken to just sending in "fuck you". What, me bitter?
  - n8cpdx 4y ago
    It sounds like the Android app is worse than the iOS app. Unfortunately, that means my recent discovery won't help you, but will hopefully help others: With the Apple News app, you can log in to your Economist account and get access to the economist content through the News app.
  - antognini 4y ago
    For what it's worth I was having exactly the same experience as you on my Pixel 1. But a few weeks ago I upgraded to the latest pixel and the app works great now. I suspect that the app is just so heavy and bloated that it performs really poorly on older phones. Not that there's any excuse for that. All it should be doing is displaying some text so you'd think it would be pretty lightweight.
skrebbel 4y ago
I agree that the app is awful (in particular, it's both slow and buggy), but the content in the app is amazing. Eg it has posh Brits who sound like they got plucked straight from the country club reading every single article out loud, it's super handy and delightfully done.
fumplethumb 4y ago
I’ve been reading the Economist digitally using their app for years. They had a few issues over the years - I think they prevented copy/paste for a minute. I was pissed about that. But now I love the app. The typography is decent, they support light/dark themes, you can play human-read audio of every piece individually, etc. I’m curious, what are your problems with the app?

kesava 4y ago

+1 for Economist. Don't let the titles of New York Review of Books and London Review of Books fool you. They do much longer view of contemporary news but thru book review. Most news is probably not worth following every day. The rearview mirror of a weekly magazine gives better context than trying to follow most news the same day when details are still ongoing.