Have you subscribed to your local news outlet?

[LAS14]

I did just today. I subscribed to the online version at $7.95/month. I'm becoming quite concerned about the loss of municipal newspapers. Online outlets will surely take over, but unless they make money we'll have no way to know what's going on at the local level. I must confess that I have not been an active participant in local politics, but I surely do believe in the importance of the 4th estate at all levels.

What do you see as the future of watchdogs at the local level?

tia
las

[mommymarine2003]

1. Yes

We subscribe to The Oregonian; however, they will only deliver 4 days/week, which is based on them cutting costs. We live in the Portland metropolitan area, so it is not because we live too far away from their production facilities. Prior to moving here we subscribed to The News Tribune (Tacoma, WA) and the Seattle Times. We continue to subscribe because we also feel that it is important to keep the newspapers going.

[LeftInTX]

2. We subscribe to our local paper

Much of it is behind a paywall and the local paper has content I can't find anywhere else.

[Moral Compass]

3. Been a subscriber for decades

The Dallas Morning News is not that great of a paper. It has done more than its share to normalize the Trump regime. But they do some good work now and then and the local Trumpies think it’s a left wing rag.

And it is a newspaper that serves up a lot of local news. News that everyone completely misses if they aren’t at least getting an online paper.

Without a team of professional editors and journalists you’ll miss an awful lot and be completely unaware of many important things.

The morning ritual of scanning the paper keeps me synced in to what is going on.

You should support your local print news outlets with your dollars. You’ll be much poorer for it if they close down.

[csziggy]

4. No - the Tallahassee Democrat was a piece of crap when Knight Ridder owned it

It has gotten no better since Gannet bought it. The local paper for the capitol city of Florida has not had a reporter covering the state government in decades - even as it sends multiple reporters to cover the sports of FSU and FAMU. In addition, the management treats their delivery people and other workers horribly. They have, over the last forty years, managed to make it impossible to earn a living delivering newspapers. It used to be that could be a full time job the the Tallahassee Democrat did not like that and cut routes to the point is is barely worth wakinng up to deliver the paper, well before their circulation dropped. Now all their national news is a page or two labeled "USA Today," local news is maybe a page or two, and sports is a four page section.

It has been bad since I moved to Tallahassee in 1972 and I will not reward them for get worse as time has gone by. I do subscribe to the Washington Post and probably should subscribe to the online entity that has taken over from the Tampa Bay Tribune and the St. Pete Times.

[old guy]

5. No.

The local fish wrap continually allows reporters to editorialize in their reporting. They also allow the reporters bias on many issues to go unchecked. I complained to them when they lied about my position on an issue and they never retracted. I canceled my subscription and now if I am alerted to something I check the copy at the local library.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

6. Yes--we have subscribed to the LA Times since we moved to SoCal in 1968.

It has actually gotten better as time has gone on. They have several excellent reporters who muck rake with the best.

And the editorial board is much less conservative than it used to be.

With our paid subscription, we have access to the online version, which is useful when I want to post articles.

They fill an important watchdog role here in Los Angeles.

[shanti]

7. Yes, until December

I got a deal last year that made it worth it. However, after the deal is done, the monthly/yearly subscription rate goes to astronomical levels. I will not renew, even though it's pretty much unreadable without a subscription due to the ads (which I hate). I don't watch local news, so it's the only way I know about local things, really. It's a mediocre fishwrap.

[randr]

8. Thank you

I had avoided subscribing because I have always wanted internet content to be free and available to everyone. The importance of our fifth estate and their struggle to remain relevant superceded my concerns thanks to your post.
I intend to pay my share as soon as I post this

[displacedtexan]

9. No. The SF Chronicle is a nightmare on my iPad.

The LA Times, however, works just fine. Just renewed my subscription. We also get the NYTimes & WaPo.

[LAS14]

10. Kick