I like the Guardian but sometimes it is a wee bit tiresome and ‘right on’.  Anything else that is worth a subscription?  Doesn’t need to be the same flavour but I would struggle to give cash to Breitbart although it is worth looking at from time to time.  Anything pan-European or is that already a bit much

I haven’t checked it myself yet, but the radio 4 media show covered substack.com this week, which is supposed to be the next big thing for independent writing and journalism. I might check it out once I’ve finished here.

The Atlantic is pretty good

The Atlantic is a good shout, forgot about that

The problem with substack is that it is still up to me to find what I want.  The problem (and great thing) about the internet is that there is such a wide variety of content.  What I’m really looking for is a short list of stuff I’m likely to like and work from there.  It’s almost impossible of course as I don’t want anything too narrow but too wide is also bad.

I also take a look at The Independent. Same but different.

Tom Peck is brilliant – on a par with John Crace.

The Economist if you like the guardian

Euronews, France24, Deutsche Welle

Financial Times is widely regarded as the least politically slanted quality newspaper in either direction.

Weirdly enough I believe the ‘How to spend it’ magazine aimed at multi-millionaires subsidises the news arm of the operation.

Der Spiegel

I also take a look at The Independent. Same but different.

Not sure what it’s like for subscribers but their free website has got to be one of the worst I’ve ever encountered, especially if you’re trying to read it on a phone.

And yes I know I’m getting it for free so have no real cause for complaint, but still.

Do you already have a Private Eye sub?

If not, I’d strongly recommend it for its news reporting, gossip and investigative reporting.

Some of the cartoons are quite good as well.

Not sure what it’s like for subscribers but their free website has got to be one of the worst I’ve ever encountered, especially if you’re trying to read it on a phone.

And yes I know I’m getting it for free so have no real cause for complaint, but still.

Agreed, in fact actually worse than this place in peasant mode (without a naughty blocker turned on).

I paid for a Guardian sub this year. Probably only for the year whilst the pandemic must be shafting their sales of physical newspapers. Post apocalypse if all that is left of the free press is the right wing nut job stuff we’ll be in a bad place. I’ve no idea how the business model of a newspaper not behind a paywall is made to work.

Is Private Eye stil intensely irritating in that you haven’t got a clue who they are talking about unless you are “in” on their nick names? I haven’t read it in the Internet era and would hope that a decoder is readily available online.

Byline Times for bigger stories

Financial Times is widely regarded as the least politically slanted quality newspaper

This is true, but I find it (like Reuters) can be a little “under-contextualised” i.e. if you want the facts, just the facts, and nothing but the facts, then it’s v good, otherwise it assumes you know enough context to form your own judgement. if you don’t know anything about the story being reported on, it can leave you with more questions than answers sometimes.

Is Private Eye stil intensely irritating in that you haven’t got a clue who they are talking about unless you are “in” on their nick names? I haven’t read it in the Internet era and would hope that a decoder is readily available online.

Not that I notice, but I know what you mean – I found it very inaccessible when I started reading it in the mid-90s.

I suppose I’m much more knowledgeable now and also “in the trade” so I love the gossipy stuff.

They do bang on about some of the same hobby horses a fair bit, e.g. the Telegraph taking money from China for advertorials then running a news story which might be critical of China.

I can see how that might be hypocritical from one POV, but from another it shows that they do have an independent newsdesk (to some extent).

Anyway, minor gripes like that aside, it’s really great value and they focus very effectively on political corruption and incompentence.

OpenDemocracy.net has some highly regarded contributors, with a broad international scope.

The Economist if you like the guardian

Eh what?

We started taking the Economist when greyspoke jnr was hoping to go go Uni to study economics. He now has his degree (and a Masters) and works for the Treasury doing it for real and we both agree the Economist’s lazily right-wing “markets know best” approach got up our noses (and we stopped the subscription). There is some good stuff in there, but a lot of it is written from just one of many available economic perspectives.

My subscriptions are STW, The Guardian, The FT and the Economist. I keep meaning to sign up for Road.cc as well, just to support them.

NB The Economist is the worst for political bias eg Labour recommend infrastructure bonds and its a terrible idea, then a Tory promotes it and they fall over themselves praising it. The FT seems pretty level headed.

The Independent seems to have gone downhill really fast since stopping printing papers, very little content and very little depth – think it’s too far gone to try and save by subscribing.

My subscriptions are STW, The Guardian, The FT and the Economist

You may not be alone here 🙂

Liking a lot of those suggestions, thanks.  Thanks especially to Edukator and oakleymuppet for the eurosuggestions.  Byline times looking good as well but I think I’ll just work my way round them all, why not.

I sometimes think what would be great is a way of just dumping a pile of cash into a pot and the sites get a percentage depending on which sites you visit, but then it will all turn click baity.  Even if you were to try and do it by time spent on an article then it will become like a lot of the recipe sites where they want you to read through some stupid story of how their brother took them to this surprising resto in Leith before getting to the actual point on how to boil an egg.  All just in order to make you scroll but a ton of junk.

So,  I’ll give them all a shot and subscribe to one for a while.

thanks all, great suggestions

If you like The Guardian then you will love…

Razzle?

The FT! No bullshit, plenty of opinions across the spectrum. No need to nod in agreement, and the weekend edition is a little more light hearted.
I still wish I’d bought one of those soap dishes….

NYT!

FT. I get it free from work. I’d pay for it if I didn’t.

Not sure what it’s like for subscribers but their free website has got to be one of the worst I’ve ever encountered, especially if you’re trying to read it on a phone.

And yes I know I’m getting it for free so have no real cause for complaint, but still.

I tried the Independent’s app on a trial. It was hardly any better than the website. Uninstalled less than 24 hrs later.

…. lentils and haloumi ? 🤣

I’ve been thinking similarly so am going to give the FT a go based on the above

The Independent have some excellent columnists such as (until recently 🙁 ) Robert Fisk. I read The Grauniad but I will not be subscribing in view of the way they piled on to Corbyn.

Politico has a range of interests. Admittedly a friend writes for them.

I also recommend the Economist and Private Eye.

Just as when you read the Guardian you need to remember that half the writers take the word ‘woke’ seriously, you need to be aware that the Economist is broadly right-wing and free market. If you keep this in mind there is some really good writing.
Private Eye is necessary as it tells you the things other papers won’t, and it’s incorruptible.

I regularly take a look at all the papers. I still take the Guardian as my daily, but in my opinion The Times has been the best for the last year or so. I can barely believe I am saying this, but I am seriously thinking of switching my subscription – Katherine Viner is turning the Guardian into a joke.

If you like the Guardian because they think you’re poor because you’re stupid, maybe you’ll like the Times because they think you’re poor because you’re lazy? 😉

When I go to the in-laws on “holiday” I buy Private Eye and the New Statesman. PE makes me so mad with fury and disbelief it physically hurts! I should subscribe but I don’t think my blood pressure could cope

Don’t forget – you can read heaps of papers & mags for free using the Library app Pressreader.

Off the wall suggestion ( and not just because its my sisters site) https://www.dutchnews.nl/

Obviously the actual dutch news is pretty useless to us but the international and europe pages give you a different view to that which we get here.

FT non biased? its a right wing paper! Its straight reporting unlike the rest of the right wing rags but by heck its establishment / right wing biased ( unless its changed – its a few years since I read it)

Tortoise Media

Set up by James Harding who was booted out from being editor of The Times by Murdock. Theyve got a good number of excellent journalists working for them and they specialise in slow news. Well considered articles, when they’re ready, not chasing the news cycle.
Also if you’re up for some stuff on the left, But up for an American perspective, I really enjoy a lot of what current affairs put out too.

I just use Flipboard, the adverts can be bloody irritating, but I get news reports from all over the world, particularly from America, Australia, India and the U.K., but also from many other parts of the world and on many subjects, plus you can fine-tune it to an extent. I get a lot of Guardian articles, particularly from Britain and Australia, which is good.
I get a lot of science and technology stuff as well, some of it highly technical, which stretches my meagre knowledge base to its maximum, but it’s still fascinating.

I suggested the Economist because the international coverage (not US) is quite good

As usual there is plenty of tripe in it but you can filter that

Guardian increasingly just seems to employ writers of opinion pieces which are at best drivel in some niche appealing to the base way

The Independent is owned by a Russian oligarch and it shows in some of the coverage, website is shocking as well

The disappearance of critical thinking and the increasing tendancy to pump out tripe opinion pieces trying to appeal to a narrow “us v them” base is representative of a sad decline of the British press. The world isn’t binary left/right, woke/ conservative, etc and the press need to get their heads around that

There is good journalism out there, following the journalist on twitter usually means you can pick up on the good stuff, Jen Williams and Liam Thorpe are two great examples

I signed up for the New York Times because they offer international discounted subs for around £2 a month. Its been great through the Trump years but not sure I will continue.

I also read Guardian, Economist, Irish Times and The Times occasionally.

Mini PSA – if you work in a secondary school or have a child in a secondary school there is a good chance you have access to a Financial Times online membership. It’s free for schools to sign up for and lots have. Once the school is registered with the FT all school email accounts can get the deal for free.

Apple News+… a bit niche as I expect not many people pay for it right now but after Apple release their “One” bundle subscription thing a lot of people might find they’re signed up to it anyway!

Lots of newspapers/mags including the Atlantic, the Times, Nat Geo, Newsweek, all the BBC mags inc. Science Focus, Sky at Night, Wildlife, etc etc

I feel I should give The London Economic a shout-out, if only because I used to live with the guy who started it. Seems to be largely well-written. Probably somewhat left-leaning, though maybe not as much as the Grauniad.