I gave up buying a newspaper on a regular basis some while ago when my subscription to the Telegraph ran out and I decided to read the news on-line for a while and see how this compared with the real thing. Now I must make it clear, my interests do not extend to the so-called "celebs", to pop stars or to reality TV shows. Nor do I have that much interest in sport and none in all the sporting scandals. I have been to one football match in my life, in Sweden, because my business host at the time thought it appropriate for an English guest!
The advantage of reading the news on line is that I have set up RSS feeds from those papers that I prefer to read, and can then scan down the headings to see if there is anything of interest. I don't feel that I have to read it all from cover to cover because I've paid good money for the paper and must get my value out of it! I tend to miss the crosswords and Mrs EP misses the Sudoko, but as a book of these costs about the same as a daily paper, there is no problem. So now, I just buy one of the Saturday papers which has a TV supplement for the week, and so save a few hundred pounds a year!
Reading the news on-line also has the advantage that if something happens in another country and you have an interest in the matter, you can invariably find a local English language paper to provide more details. With Germany and the EU being in the news at the moment, one can read various German viewpoints in Der Spiegel which produces an on-line version in English.
Would I go back to buying a Newspaper on a regular basis? It seems unlikely unless one should revert to being just that, a newspaper. It would need to contain real factual, hopefully unbiased, news from around the world and confine issues such as the winner of "Big Brother" to not more than a small paragraph at the bottom of page five.
And as I've mentioned Der Spiegel, I thought that I should quote this from yesterday's on line edition
"The German statesman Otto von Bismarck once said that only fools learned from their own mistakes -- he preferred to learn from the mistakes of others. At the moment, no politician or adviser in Europe has bothered to learn the lessons of the Argentine or Asian debt crises. Indeed, in Europe, they aren't even learning from their own mistakes."
Bismark had something there!
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newspapers. Show all posts
Sunday, 20 November 2011
Friday, 8 April 2011
Why buy a Daily Newspaper?
Ever since I started work, I have bought a daily newspaper. At first it was the Express ( a good paper in its time), then the Mail, and then for most of my life the Telegraph.
For the last few years, I have had an annual subscription to the Telegraph, which provided it, seven days a week, for little more than half price, but even with this reduction, I have reached the conclusion that it is no longer worth the money.
Now I realise that a newspaper can't compete with radio and television in terms of providing up-to-the-minute news, but until the last few years, my newspaper usually provided considerably more in-depth coverage and background information than the television, along with reasonably impartial informed comment. Of late, however, I have felt that the standard of news coverage had declined, particularly in respect of events outside this country and the proportion of non-news items, in which I have minimal interest, has been on the increase. This situation is at its worse on a Saturday, when the assorted supplements, none of which I would purchase if offered individually, amount to some 120 pages or so, plus a “magazine”, as compared with the 36 pages in the main paper of which approximately half is news.
Ever since I got broadband and have been able to read the news on line, I have become more aware of what is happening around the world, and the fact that much of it is not being reported in the UK . With only the Murdoch media empire making a charge, I can now read news from most countries around the world where frequently the local version differs considerably from that published here. Even in non-English speaking countries, the media frequently offers an English version on the internet, and if they don't, various bloggers do.
With the saving, I am considering a new laptop, or possibly one of these tablet PCs or iPads, which will enable me to sit in my arm chair and read the news exactly as I do now.
Mrs EP approves of the decision as long as I buy her the Radio Times or equivalent so that she can organise her TV viewing; she suggests the Daily Mail on Saturdays as she prefers their TV supplement. At 80p, its a considerable saving on the £2 for the Telegraph and its unwanted supplements!
Incidentally, when I first started to buy a daily newspaper, most cost 1d (one penny in the good old money), with the Telegraph and the Times costing 1½d. Now the Monday to Friday Telegraph costs £1, which is 160 times more than it did back then! (an increase of 16000%).
Whilst I'm no friend of Royal Mail, it is worth noting that a postage stamp then cost 2½d and that it now costs 46p for a first class letter. So from a situation where a stamp cost 2½ times the cost of most morning newspapers, we now have one where it costs less than half the price of the Telegraph. Perhaps postage charges aren't as bad as we like to think!
So we'll see how things go; possibly I'll need to buy a book of crossword puzzles or Sudoku; or are these available on line and I've just not found them yet?
For the last few years, I have had an annual subscription to the Telegraph, which provided it, seven days a week, for little more than half price, but even with this reduction, I have reached the conclusion that it is no longer worth the money.
Now I realise that a newspaper can't compete with radio and television in terms of providing up-to-the-minute news, but until the last few years, my newspaper usually provided considerably more in-depth coverage and background information than the television, along with reasonably impartial informed comment. Of late, however, I have felt that the standard of news coverage had declined, particularly in respect of events outside this country and the proportion of non-news items, in which I have minimal interest, has been on the increase. This situation is at its worse on a Saturday, when the assorted supplements, none of which I would purchase if offered individually, amount to some 120 pages or so, plus a “magazine”, as compared with the 36 pages in the main paper of which approximately half is news.
Ever since I got broadband and have been able to read the news on line, I have become more aware of what is happening around the world, and the fact that much of it is not being reported in the UK . With only the Murdoch media empire making a charge, I can now read news from most countries around the world where frequently the local version differs considerably from that published here. Even in non-English speaking countries, the media frequently offers an English version on the internet, and if they don't, various bloggers do.
With the saving, I am considering a new laptop, or possibly one of these tablet PCs or iPads, which will enable me to sit in my arm chair and read the news exactly as I do now.
Mrs EP approves of the decision as long as I buy her the Radio Times or equivalent so that she can organise her TV viewing; she suggests the Daily Mail on Saturdays as she prefers their TV supplement. At 80p, its a considerable saving on the £2 for the Telegraph and its unwanted supplements!
Incidentally, when I first started to buy a daily newspaper, most cost 1d (one penny in the good old money), with the Telegraph and the Times costing 1½d. Now the Monday to Friday Telegraph costs £1, which is 160 times more than it did back then! (an increase of 16000%).
Whilst I'm no friend of Royal Mail, it is worth noting that a postage stamp then cost 2½d and that it now costs 46p for a first class letter. So from a situation where a stamp cost 2½ times the cost of most morning newspapers, we now have one where it costs less than half the price of the Telegraph. Perhaps postage charges aren't as bad as we like to think!
So we'll see how things go; possibly I'll need to buy a book of crossword puzzles or Sudoku; or are these available on line and I've just not found them yet?
Saturday, 19 February 2011
Should I buy a daily newspaper?
Ever since I started work, I have always bought a daily newspaper. My parents took the Daily Express, which in those days was probably read by those who would read the Daily Mail these days. I started to take the Telegraph, mainly because, at the time, it was probably the best newspaper for jobs in my particular field, and indeed, I think that I secured all my jobs through their advertisements. So even when I became settled in a particular job, I continued to take it, probably more from habit than anything else. For the past few years, I have had a subscription, which offered the paper at roughly half price, but now, with it due for renewal, I am wondering whether I should continue.
During the past year I have realised that my daily paper contains less and less real news. The Telegraph, which used to pride itself in its foreign news coverage now has very little. We are in Europe (whether we like it or not), but where is the European news? Well there is a bit from Italy at the moment, but only because of the antics of Silvio Berlusconi, which whilst being interesting, are hardly representative of the real Italian news. What's happening in Australia - something must be taking place, but since the Queensland floods, I haven't seen a mention. As for New Zealand (or Canada), do they still exist?
So I am now finding that of a weekday, I am probably interested in probably less than a third of the paper. The leading articles no longer exhibit the quality they once did, and the only other part that I find worth reading are the financial pages.
Weekends, the situation is far worse with the largely unread (advertising) supplements.
Property (beyond my class), motoring (marginal interest), travel (exotic places and more adverts), Cruise Style (the same), gardening (Mrs EP might glance at it), "Review" (the TV & Radio listings are useful), Money (the same advice each week, better advice generally available on the web) and "Weekend" (the odd bit of interest). There is also a glossy magazine both on Saturday and Sunday, again mainly advertising, and certainty not items that I would buy if sold separately. I haven't mentioned sport, I'm not particularly interested in sport, but I accept that it would be unreasonable for a newspaper not to cover the subject in some detail; I just wish that there was more of other news.
The only advantage of the newspaper, is that it provides an incentive for me to go for my daily walk, and as I've paid a subscription, I'm determined to get my money's worth. Will I go for a walk without that incentive? Who knows, no doubt time will tell!
Meanwhile, I've taken to reading the news on my laptop at breakfast along with quite a few blogs, and I have a feeling that this is the future. Perhaps I can persuade Mrs EP that I should use to saving in the subscription to pay towards one of these latest tablet PCs, enabling me to read the news from the internet whilst sitting in the comfort of my armchair. I'll probably get away with it, provided that I go and buy the daily Mail on Saturday for its excellent TV supplement!
During the past year I have realised that my daily paper contains less and less real news. The Telegraph, which used to pride itself in its foreign news coverage now has very little. We are in Europe (whether we like it or not), but where is the European news? Well there is a bit from Italy at the moment, but only because of the antics of Silvio Berlusconi, which whilst being interesting, are hardly representative of the real Italian news. What's happening in Australia - something must be taking place, but since the Queensland floods, I haven't seen a mention. As for New Zealand (or Canada), do they still exist?
So I am now finding that of a weekday, I am probably interested in probably less than a third of the paper. The leading articles no longer exhibit the quality they once did, and the only other part that I find worth reading are the financial pages.
Weekends, the situation is far worse with the largely unread (advertising) supplements.
Property (beyond my class), motoring (marginal interest), travel (exotic places and more adverts), Cruise Style (the same), gardening (Mrs EP might glance at it), "Review" (the TV & Radio listings are useful), Money (the same advice each week, better advice generally available on the web) and "Weekend" (the odd bit of interest). There is also a glossy magazine both on Saturday and Sunday, again mainly advertising, and certainty not items that I would buy if sold separately. I haven't mentioned sport, I'm not particularly interested in sport, but I accept that it would be unreasonable for a newspaper not to cover the subject in some detail; I just wish that there was more of other news.
The only advantage of the newspaper, is that it provides an incentive for me to go for my daily walk, and as I've paid a subscription, I'm determined to get my money's worth. Will I go for a walk without that incentive? Who knows, no doubt time will tell!
Meanwhile, I've taken to reading the news on my laptop at breakfast along with quite a few blogs, and I have a feeling that this is the future. Perhaps I can persuade Mrs EP that I should use to saving in the subscription to pay towards one of these latest tablet PCs, enabling me to read the news from the internet whilst sitting in the comfort of my armchair. I'll probably get away with it, provided that I go and buy the daily Mail on Saturday for its excellent TV supplement!
Sunday, 7 February 2010
Is it worth buying a daily newspaper?
Ever since I started work, I have bought a daily newspaper. When I first went to work, I bought the Daily Express, which was somewhat different in those days than it is now. It cost me 1d (approx 0.4p). As I obtained more qualifications I changed to the Daily Telegraph, mainly because it had most of the job advertisements for my chosen profession. This cost 1½d (approx 0.6p).
Although I tried other papers at various periods in my life, since I retired I have continued to read the Telegraph, and of recent years have paid for it annually.
Now I am beginning to find that there is less of interest to me in the daily newspapers. Much news seems to consist of Big Brother, sex scandals, sport, and what I regard as trivia. Rarely is there much more detail than on the television or radio news, the only advantage being that I can skip the parts in which I have no interest. If I want any detailed foreign news, it is far better to read other countries' newspapers on the web. Indeed, when I first went to America, I found their newspapers and news rather strange; rarely did anything outside the particular state get a mention. Regrettably this now seems to be the same with the British media. Look for news about Australia, New Zealand or even Canada, and the chance of finding any is minimal. The same applies to Europe; rarely is there news about anything other than the EU, the only exception being Presidents/Prime Ministers and their wives and girl friends.
So should I pay for another year's subscription? I don't really want both a Saturday and a Sunday newspaper, the news is usually unchanged and the supplements almost identical. Frequently most of the supplements go straight into the bin without being read, I just don't have the time. But that would only save me £1.90, which still means that even if I went without a paper on another day, it would still cost me 20p more than a subscription!
On the plus side is the fact that I invariably walk to the newsagent to pick up my paper, as having paid for it, I am determined not to waste the money! I suspect without this incentive I'd probably be sitting in front of this computer reading blogs and getting absolutely no exercise!
Decisions, decisions, decisions! No escape, even when you retire!
Incidentally, when I first started to buy my newspaper, as I said it cost 1d. Postage at that time cost 2½d, two and a half times the cost of my daily paper. Now I'm no great supporter of Royal Mail, but however you look at it, their prices are now considerably less than my daily newspaper!
Although I tried other papers at various periods in my life, since I retired I have continued to read the Telegraph, and of recent years have paid for it annually.
Now I am beginning to find that there is less of interest to me in the daily newspapers. Much news seems to consist of Big Brother, sex scandals, sport, and what I regard as trivia. Rarely is there much more detail than on the television or radio news, the only advantage being that I can skip the parts in which I have no interest. If I want any detailed foreign news, it is far better to read other countries' newspapers on the web. Indeed, when I first went to America, I found their newspapers and news rather strange; rarely did anything outside the particular state get a mention. Regrettably this now seems to be the same with the British media. Look for news about Australia, New Zealand or even Canada, and the chance of finding any is minimal. The same applies to Europe; rarely is there news about anything other than the EU, the only exception being Presidents/Prime Ministers and their wives and girl friends.
So should I pay for another year's subscription? I don't really want both a Saturday and a Sunday newspaper, the news is usually unchanged and the supplements almost identical. Frequently most of the supplements go straight into the bin without being read, I just don't have the time. But that would only save me £1.90, which still means that even if I went without a paper on another day, it would still cost me 20p more than a subscription!
On the plus side is the fact that I invariably walk to the newsagent to pick up my paper, as having paid for it, I am determined not to waste the money! I suspect without this incentive I'd probably be sitting in front of this computer reading blogs and getting absolutely no exercise!
Decisions, decisions, decisions! No escape, even when you retire!
Incidentally, when I first started to buy my newspaper, as I said it cost 1d. Postage at that time cost 2½d, two and a half times the cost of my daily paper. Now I'm no great supporter of Royal Mail, but however you look at it, their prices are now considerably less than my daily newspaper!
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