I love that chart. Every time I post it on Facebook everyone gets in a tizzy lol.
I love that second link, thanks. I will be using that a ton.
I’m an “anti-newser” myself, I’ve personally found it to add virtually no value to the quality of my life in any way, but when I do want to peek my head in the door I use Reuters or AP, which in my opinion are two of the only sources I’ve ever found to do truly unbiased reporting.
I do actually receive one newsletter from a website called “The New Paper” (http://www.thenewpaper.co) which is really, really unbiased and goes to my email once a… I don’t even know how often, maybe daily?
It’s very short, I read their entire email in 1-2 minutes; check it out! 
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I like the premise of that! Would you be willing to share one of the texts they send?
(this is their email from today, I only removed the sponsor blurb (at the top) and the footer from the bottom)
The New Paper
August 27, 2020
“The political environment has sharply changed…Against this backdrop, and as we expect to reach a resolution very soon…I have decided to leave the company.” —TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer, on his decision to resign after joining the company in June
SPORTS
1. Professional sports leagues including the NBA, WNBA, MLS, and MLB canceled games yesterday in protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake. The cancellations followed an initial boycott led by the NBA’s Milwaukee Bucks (statement). Meanwhile, protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin (where the shooting occurred on Sunday) continued for a fourth consecutive night last night.
BUSINESS
2. TikTok CEO Kevin Mayer resigned yesterday, citing a changing political environment surrounding the company and the resulting changes to the “global role” he initially took on. The former Disney executive took over the role in June and will be replaced by General Manager Vanessa Pappas on an interim basis. TikTok issued a statement supporting Mayer’s decision.
More context: TikTok has faced intense scrutiny over its proximity to the Chinese government, with President Trump issuing executive orders banning transactions with the company and calling for a sale of its US assets earlier this month. Mayer’s resignation comes as the company explores a sale of its US business, with potential suitors reportedly including Microsoft, Oracle, and Twitter.
US
3. The FDA granted emergency use authorization for a new coronavirus antigen test made by Abbott yesterday. The $5 test provides results in 15 minutes without the need for lab equipment and uses similar technology to common pregnancy tests. Abbott expects to ship 50M of the tests per month starting in October (source).
Extra: The US has reported 5.8M coronavirus cases, including 180k deaths and 2M recoveries. See a state-by-state breakdown here.
US
4. Hurricane Laura made landfall in Louisiana (near the Texas border) last night, bringing sustained winds up to 150 mph and leaving nearly 500k homes and businesses without power. The storm was downgraded from Category 4 to Category 2 earlier this morning, but forecasters still warned of potentially “catastrophic damage” with flooding up to 40 miles inland from coastal areas.
QUICK BITS
- Over 1M people filed for unemployment in the US last week, decreasing slightly from the prior week while remaining above the pre-coronavirus high of 695k (set in 1982) for the 23rd consecutive week.
- Microsoft released an audio transcription tool for Word yesterday. The new tool can automatically detect different speakers in a recorded conversation, and will initially be available in the online version of the company’s popular text editing software.
- Ten venture capital funds (including First Round and Greycroft) pledged to include “diversity riders” in term sheets for investments in startups. The term calls for companies and VC funds to include Black and other underrepresented groups as co-investors in deals (source).
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BRAIN CANDY
Hot embossing is equal parts intricate, creative, and beautiful.
— Editors
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I like that. They’re bolding the right parts to make it scannable.
@r2d2 The bias chart has really peaked my interest. I am really appreciating the community sharing their source of news.
@Zack - I didnt consider this but now I am. Why do I need to know about the news. I am asking myself whether I am getting any value or am I interested because of FOMO. The addictive nature of news and always being up to date is probably not good for your wellbeing considering in recent times, news tend to be negative.
@acavender @KevinR @tomalmy @anon41602260 @HobbyCollector - you appear to subscribe to multiple sources. What kind of dedication of time does it take to keep yourself abreast of the news from all these sources. Are you subscribing because you “news/media” is an interest of yours or are you subscribing to keep yourself informed? Is work paying for this? In my case, subscribing to news will be a personal expense.
It depends on the day/week how much time I have. I would say I get through NYT most days and the other dailies maybe every other or twice per week? The magazines I almost always read in their entirety but will admit sometimes I have to be a little discerning with the Economist because I run out of time.
I just like to be informed and really believe in print (or online version of print) news media. I enjoy staying plugged in without having to worry so much about “breaking” news. I do not consider news a hobby, but I appreciate being informed.
I pay for all of my news sources myself. I’ll admit, though, to taking advantage of military discounts on NYT. Spoiler alert: I am in the military. I am very happy to pay out of my pocket to support journalism.
If you could only pick, say, two to save money: Economist and a newspaper of choice. That would go a long way!
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I think it’s worth saying that conflating centrism (on a left-right party spectrum) with “truth,” “neutrality,” “balance,” or “non-bias” in news is a rickety position because it starts with wonky assumptions. The search of “unbiased” news may be flawed from the start. For news to be newsworthy, it has to be relavent to someone, somewhere. All media are situated. They necessarily adopt a perspective. Looking for news without bias is sorta like a search for raw, un-mediated data. All the filtering of the noise, making those data meaningful, is the work of value, judgment, discretion. There is no reporting without a “politics” in the broadest sense–that would just be something like the common-sense notion of “source of information.” To put it another way, there’s always a politics to being apolitical, as a news outlet, or otherwise.
The question in the OP is great: How do subscriptions contribute to the overall power of a media outlet? I think to answer that, I’d also need to look at the other legs of the stool: money from underwriters and advertising revenue both of which buffer media outlets from sometimes slumping subscriptions rates. Subscriptions alone are not what drives the influence of sources like WaPo/Bezos, Huffington/Huffington, Fox/Murdochs, and so on down the line.
Also, the means by which we get our news matters. The RSS show got me thinking that it matters just as much how and where I’m consuming a news source. NetNewsWire gets at some of this on their home page: Why Write an RSS Reader
In the U.S., local, regional, and state news outlets have been decimated in recent decades. For myself, I’m finding that reading at multiple regional scales is way more interesting, enlightening, and meaningful than trying to shift my reading along a horizontal political spectrum.
All that said, I think there’s no reason to subscribe to media outlets that have records or “reporting” in bad-faith, and spread disinformation.
I listen to the BBC World News Podcast. + The NYTimes Daily
I search Google News for keywords
I keep tabs on a paper of record, like cornchip mentions. For me, it’s the NYTimes.
I try to dip into local public radio (NRP affiliates and non-affiliates)
I read my city’s weekly newsletter every week.
I try to access as much news media through my local library’s subscriptions as I can and don’t pay for papers, etc.
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I don’t read any of my sources end-to-end, and some days spend more time than others reading. I read to be informed and not fill my head with just one point of view, since “news” or “reportage” always has a bias, regardless of the source, so looking at a situation from different perspectives helps avoid having a particular voice drown out other important voices. Although with everyone screaming all the time, which seems to define what’s “news” these days, it’s difficult to find rational points of view. I pay for everything myself.
IMO one should look into supporting professional and independent journalism (which is something quite difficult to do, nowadays), and learn to understand and “filter” the bias, that is always there. It’s both in the news outlet and in the reader.
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My multiple subscriptions and sources are for our whole family, not just me. I don’t think anyone reads more than half of it. I think having well written need and analysis around is really good for children, especially.
I’m not a completionist with the sources I subscribe to (I also use RSS extensively, but I treat that separately).
Usually what I do is skim the headlines of the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Washington Post, paying particular attention to whatever topic happens to interest me that day. If something grabs my eye, I’ll read more in depth, and see how all three sources cover it.
Similarly, I skim headlines in Apple News, diving in deeper for things that catch my interest. (I keep meaning to read the news magazines in News+ more regularly, but I keep ending up focusing on Runners’ World and Birds and Blooms 
)
And of course I read remembering that news article != analysis article != op-ed.
The one thing I never miss is the comics section of the Washington Post. 
I pay for Apple News+ and the Washington Post myself. I never pay full price for WaPo; I let my subscription lapse at the end of each year, then wait for one of their specials.
My college has campus-wide subscriptions to the NYT and the WSJ, so I get those for free through work.
For anyone who may be interested, the NYT has a discounted rate for people in education. Right now, though, they’re running an even better deal for anyone, no educational affiliation required.
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$13 for a year of NYTimes basic access? That’s a great deal. Just be aware that it does not include access on e-readers like Kindle or Nook, and does not include NYT Games (The Crossword) or NYT Cooking, which are separate subscriptions (unless you get home delivery, in which case they are included).
EDIT: I just subscribed and after I entered my cc info I was offered Cooking and Games for an additional, discounted price.
I subscribe to the NYT and the Athletic. Full disclosure, I tend to subscribe to the paper of record who I perceive to be the opposite of whoever controls the White House. I’ve convinced myself that this allows me to get both sides. That notion is probably up for debate.
I enjoy Sports, and a subscription to the Athletic has in depth sports coverage as well as a discussion of the business and social issues contained in sports.
I don’t read them from cover to cover. I scan for headlines that are interesting for me or for class. Work doesn’t pay for any of it, but I do benefit from the education discount.
Also, I feel like it’s important to support quality journalism at the moment.
I subscribe to the New York Times, but am quite aware of their bias and try to adjust for it. Also follow NPR on RSS and CNN and Al Jazeera as well as individuals on Twitter. I also have digital subscriptions to my local small town daily and the Charlotte Observer, though I’m not sure I’ll renew that. And about 20 comics in GoComics, which is not news but gives me a little happy every day.
I came across this chart the other day and it is making me think about what other resources I should be looking at without letting my life be totally absorbed by news.
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Thank you for this link. It’s just the sort of resource I like to see.
Keeping informed. I can read much faster than I can watch TV or cable news, and I can select the topics I’m interested in. So it’s no more than an hour a day. About what one would invest watching Maddow or Hannity, but with balance! (Actually those are especially bad choices being basically “Op Ed” instead of “newscasts”.)
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I am lucky because my university provides subscriptions to the NY Times, WSJ, Economist, Financial Times and all the local Spanish media publications.
I personally subscribe to magazines that I love to read. In particular: MIT Technology Review, Mac Format, Mac Life, Edge and Retro Gamer.
With all these, I have more than enough to read! I don’t spend much time on websites which are written by hobbyists as I prefer not to read lots of rumors that never come true. I prefer magazines as they are written by professionals and have much less speculation and fake news.
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I would love to have a source that only reports news in depth, fact-based, no unnamed sources, and absolutely no opinion columns. I don’t think it exists.
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Just to let you know, AllSides updated the Media Bias chart about a week ago:
https://www.allsides.com/blog/new-allsides-media-bias-chart-version-3
I found AllSides’ explanation of their methodology behind the chart very interesting. And glad they mention Axios which has a very clear presentation of top headlines.
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