Subscription RSS feeds are quite rare in my experience.
I used to use Reeder till it died, then Google Reader till that died and now Feedly (despite Reeder being back again).
I’d say there are some pros and cons of RSS vs Twitter for news. With RSS feeds, what you sign up for is what you get, and there is little to drive you to new content, so it’s on-topic at best but monotonous at worst. For Twitter, the people you follow for some reason (e.g. a favorite author) may report off-topic events of concern and you can learn about issues that you would not have sought out. Each has its place.
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I think there’s probably just a bit of miscommunication on this topic. You’re referring to feed services I think? For a lot of people referring to feeds might be more of a reference to individual newsfeeds from publications, blogs, etc. At least for myself that’s the way I think of it!
I haven’t used Reeder. Just NetNewsWire and News Explorer. Of course, ages ago I used the RSS apps that were common back then, but those feel like the Stone Age compared to RSS apps nowadays.
I’ve been a tech news junkie for a long time. I used to get weekly tech tabloids, like the original PC Week, and tear out articles that I found interesting or useful. Years later I became a Google Reader fan almost from day one. I switched to Feedly after GR’s demise (Why Google? 
) and am still using it.
But like @Denny I’ve tried a lot of apps, always using Feedly as the back end. Lately I’m using the Feedly app on IOS and Notion for saving articles.
I do have two Twitter accounts. One is for following a few friends, the other is mainly for local “breaking news” such as severe weather events, etc. I also use the second one for following other “news” type accounts but Twitters signal to noise ration isn’t very good.
What does Feedly does extra that Reeder and other one-time RSS apps don’t? Feedly has limits and subscriptions right?
Most people don’t use RSS because it’s too technical for them. Others here have answered in greater detail, and I agree with what they have said.
As for me, I’ve used it continuously for 20 years, starting with Radio Userland and Amphetadesk. I used it before Google Reader made RSS cool, and I used it after Google Reader went bust.
However, lately I’m significantly changing HOW I use RSS. I am realizing RSS works best for sites that update AT MOST 3-4x/day, and where I want to be sure to at least see every update. Other than that, I’m better off just visiting the website.
Also, I’m more and more using my RSS reader to subscribe to newsletters and Twitter and Reddit feeds.
As a holiday project, I am going to try to move my high-volume feeds into DevonThink, and then filter the heck out of them to surface the dozen or so stories per week I actually care about, related to myself, my employer, and a community organization I’m active in.
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The free version of Feedly has a 100 source limit, which has never been a problem for me. The pro version gives you the ability to use 1000 sources and work with other services like Pocket. They also offer a pro+ version.
But at its core it does the same basic job as reeder and netnewswire, etc. Its main advantage is it allows me to use it as a “database” of news feeds and other programs like Reeder as a front end, if I choose.
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Interesting, why not just use Reeder? What does Feedly offer more? For RSS, I just add the website to Reeder and its pull in all the articles for me. Why do feedly > Reeder?
Not to turn this into ‘what is your favorite app’ thread but Inoreader is a very powerful tool with both free and pay features. RSS allows the consumption of a significant amount of information in an easy format.
Mainly because I not a big fan of Reeder or any of the other current rss apps. Using Feedly allows me to evaluate other readers without having to add my feeds each time, manually or via opml. For example, I buy and install the latest version of Reeder. I launch the app, log into Feedly, and I’m ready to go.
There are tons of people who like Reeder and I’ve purchased multiple versions of it. However, there is nothing it does, that is important to me, that makes it better than NetNewsWire, a free app. I gave up on Reeder when v5 still required me to delete saved articles in Read Later one at a time. As I recall each delete takes 2 or 3 clicks.
Bottom line, all RSS readers at their core are all the same. They differ in how they present the information and if/how they work with other services. Just find one that makes you happy. That’s what I’m (still) trying to do. 
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In the words of the immortal Austin Powers: That train has sailed.
I have used Inoreader but I find I need more than the free version provides, but not enough to justify the paid version. So I’m trying readers that offer iCloud syncing, and plan to try DevonThink for the filtering that I’d previously been using Inoreader for.
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Echoing what others have said, I pay Newsblur and in exchange I get:
- Feeds already synced for me
- A great feed filtering/training/tagging system
- Social features
- And I can log in from the web if I’m on a random computer, or switch desktop/mobile clients
Reeder and Lire are nice front-ends for Newsblur but not mandatory. (I think the whole ecosystem of integrated service web apps and client RSS apps is fascinating, by the way. There aren’t many corners of the web or software that have sorted themselves out that way, where one or the other or both can be used. Very much a power user thing and part of the reason RSS is hard to get into, but it’s nice once you’re in.)
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Ben Thompson’s Stratechery is one that comes to mind.
I use Feedly with Reeder. Have done so forever. Works nicely.
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Yes, another vote for News Explorer. Syncing via iCloud is very nice.
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I’m interested in hearing more about how you use NewsBlur for filtering and tagging. I have tried NewsBlur but it never stuck.
And yet I know that many RSS power users love it.
I wouldn’t worry about trying to make it work. I like training feeds because I want to subscribe to some busier feeds and automatically pare them down. That’s really about it.
For example, I really only want to read new Q&A on Ask a Manager, so I’ve filtered out revisited questions, community threads, weekend threads, etc.
If I want to train a new story, I do it directly on the feed item. For example, I am probably going to do this if too many more polls show up.
Tagging is fairly limited to saved stories, but it’ll autogenerate tags based on all the folders a feed is in when you save a story, and you can add additional tags. It’s just a little reward for adding a feed to multiple folders (many of mine are in 2-4 folders.) These days I’m more likely to save the final offline copy of a story in DT, but it’s quick to hit s and then go through saved stories later.
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Thanks for the mention of News Explorer. I’m going to give it a run; looks promising, so far.
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Check out your library to see what they offer insofar as subscriptions. I get free subscriptions for WSJ, Washington Post, NYT, and other big names with my library’s online offerings.
Some of them require frequent renewals, but I consider that to be a minor quibble for what I want (i.e., I can refresh every 72 hours, or skip a few days, depending on how voracious my news ingestion is - if I find myself refreshing every third day, it’s probably time to subscribe!).