[Discuss] what news do you read?

[Kent Borg]

On 12/10/2013 10:26 AM, Eric Chadbourne wrote:
> So what do you read?

Three main sources.

First, I use an obscure twitter app that I like, running on Android, and 
my follow list is kind of a custom wire service of headlines; frequently 
I am very aware of the story and the headline update is sufficient in 
itself, frequently there is a URL to a more complete story I might look 
at. Unfortunately, it is event driven, and some days I get far too many 
tweets to read. Plus side, when I am caught up, I am very up-to-date. I 
also have a couple different news apps on my Android devices that can 
put up alerts on breaking news (NY Times, Guardian, and "Breaking 
News"). While writing this I saw who Time named as person of the year.

Second, I listen to public radio. This isn't something I read, but I can 
do it while doing other things. While getting myself up and ready to 
work and driving there, and again on my way home, I listen to Morning 
Edition and All Things Considered. I will punch buttons between WGBH and 
WBUR and internet streams, with a preference for stories from NPR over 
local preemptions. But then I will occasionally catch up on local 
stories that WBUR puts up as a podcast, in bulk, with headphones plugged 
into my Android phone, while doing something else.

Third, is something I am guessing you won't like. Once upon a time if 
newspaper X had a scoop on the front page, you had to spend money on 
their paper if you wanted to read all about it. Possibly the story took 
a lot of time and effort to report, but as an exclusive, if could be 
worth it to newspaper X. A little like selling software: it takes time 
to produce, but you can to sell the result.  But for news, there is a 
new tragedy of the commons: Newspaper X spends a lot on a story, website 
Y reads it, rewrites a summary for next to nothing, you can read it 
immediately for maybe nothing, and X doesn't get much of anything to 
reward their hard work. (It will be interesting to see how Bezos 
addresses this with the Washington Post.)

So I pay, kind of like contributing to charity, for the good of the 
world.  My wife and I subscribe to the New York Times for weekday paper 
delivery. She reads the physical copy on the bus to work (some days, but 
not always), and I read the electronic version.  Recently they did what 
looks like an HTML 5 app that finally lets me survey the entire day's 
paper without seeing repeated stories from previous days, the coming 
Sunday magazine, etc.

We also have an electronic-only subscription to the Boston Globe. I read 
it in their facsimile edition on my Nexus 7 (2013) and really like 
it--but I have good near-vision.

The biggest problem with this is I don't have the time to read it all.

-kb