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Which newspapers/magazines do you read and why?
I recently obtained a access to a TON of different magazines and papers from Europe, US, UK and a few from Australia and New Zealand but I have no clue about the quality of stuff outside my native country so I would like to hear some suggestions.
Which ones do you read and would recommend to others and why?
The Economist. Great reporting on US and word news. Long form articles that actually go in-depth. I originally picked a copy up many years ago because the cover story was ' how to end the drug war' it went in depth on Mexican cartels, to the socioeconomic reasons for the war on drugs, etc. It's definitely not an easy read but if you want real reporting it's a good one.
Weirdly enough, I've found Economist and Financial Times to be rather good overall, even though they focus on economy, so much affects economics that they kind of have to cover a wide range of topics.
Yes. The difference between them is that the FT is trans-inclusive, and the Economist is anti-trans.
Why do you think that the Economist is anti-trans?
Because they've run a number of explicitly anti trans articles. It's not a contentious point. They've run articles by people who are openly and consistently anti-trans.
Can you cite some sources? I’m a regular reader and this doesn’t sound right to me.
From the UK the general quality of newspapers is pretty low (massive agendas). Off the top of my head: For the news, I default to the Guardian, but try to read beyond for a more balanced outlook. The magazine New Scientist is good - think Scientific American, but British flavour. Fortean Times can be interesting if you read it as a chronicle on people, rather than real phenomena.
Guardian, Independed and The Times are the British papers I've been browsing through so far. I do check the covers of Daily Mail etc for the laughs(and/or to get disappointed).
Not a terrible choice given the options. The Times is owned by News UK (wholly owned by News Corp. of Murdoch fame). The iIndependent's main owner is Evgeny Lebedev, son of an (ex?)KGB agent. The Guardian is left leaning, but pretty open about the fact, so I view it as the best of the bunch. Don't believe a word you read in the Daily Mail unless repeated in other, reliable sources. If you want a real laugh, have a look at the daily express, it's a joke of a newspaper!
The Independent has health system reporting by Rebecca Thomas and she's very good.
The Times has health system reporting by Shaun Lintern and he's very good.
Both of them used to work at the specialist Health Service Journal.
There are plenty of 'quality' newspapers (e.g. FT, i, Scotsman). Regional newspapers (e.g. Yorkshire Post) can be excellent too. I don't see how the UK's newspaper ecosystem is particularly better or worse than other peer countries.
Apologies, I should have said daily national papers. The FT is odd as it straddles the boundry between newspaper and specialist publication. Many of its readers demand transparency to make financial decisions, so it would quickly die if it behaved like the other daily nationals. Its speciality also means it doesn't give focus to events that are less related to financial markets.
Regarding comparison to peer countries. No argument here, but I don't feel poor press elsewhere is a reason not to strive for the best press we can have.
Thanks, MediumPhil. I would disagree with the FT straddling the boundary between newspaper/special publication. Sure, its readership is concentrated in financial and legal services, but its reporting is broad, it has extensive UK reporting (including on local political issues), and unlike pure financial journals it has an expansive arts and culture section; I actually think this is one of its great strengths, especially in the weekend edition. I somewhat disagree on the point that the FT doesn't give a focus to events that are less related to financial markets - just on today's front page, I've read an article about European space exploration, and another on the UK dairy industry. In any case the FT has a hearty opinion section and takes editorial positions - which are sometimes controversial.
First, thanks for the grown-up disagreement and discussion, so refreshing after other sites!
I should check out the FT more frequently. Although hopefully you'll agree that it does have a different style to the more popular dailies.
Likewise! And certainly, I can agree with you that the FT has a pragmatic style compared to other UK dailies. I also wholeheartedly agree that the UK press has scope for improvement!
I enjoy reading The Atlantic. I find them to give a different perspective on many current news stories and trends in society, usually from a more critical and subdued angle. I have recently enjoyed their articles on AI.
These recent topics might be of interest to you:
This feels dumb to ask, but how do you get your news?
Does anyone read a weekly printed news publication? If so, which and why?
Yeah I saw that but most of the answers over there are websites, I'm asking specifically about magazines and paper versions of news.
I just edited my comment because I remembered another topic for you.
Also, many news websites started as print publications. My news source of choice has been a printed newspaper for over 150 years, and now it has a website as well.
I saw that other link like 2 minutes after replying to your comment, got some good recommendations from there so thanks anyway :)
Anyways, I think I didnt explain myself properly, I'm not looking for news sources in general, I'm looking for magazines and papers in particular.
I used to get 100% of my news from internet sources but with all the clickbaiting and paywalling its getting higgly annoying and lately I have only been using my states broadcasting corpartions website for my news and I realise that limiting myself to one source is not very good. On top of that, I'm getting old and have started to enjoy browsing a physical magazine while drinking my (14th) cup of coffee.
You explained yourself properly.
When you say "which newspapers/magazines do you read", I start thinking that another thread asking people where they get their news could include the printed newspapers and magazines that you're asking about - so I suggest it here as a further reference for you, in case there's something helpful there that you haven't seen.
I read the New Yorker for long form journalism, and the Guardian for international news. My national paper, the Straits Times is basically a wing of the Singaporean Government's comms so I support a new local magazine called Jom whose mission is to replicate the style of the New Yorker for Singapore and later South East Asia.
Foreign Affairs is my go to for important news in international relations if I'm looking for expert analysis in a non-academic journal. As a newspaper it fills a niche that the economist/foreign policy magazines do not—in that they provide curated (often deep-dive type) pieces exclusively.
It's released every other month but I find that I get enough from it to justify paying the subscription vs nearly every other news service (where the online offerings are usually sufficient for my available time).
If you like the economist, or FT, you'll likely enjoy FA too.
Thanks, MBFC rates it as "least bias", so Im adding it to my list!
It's a staple, but if you're new to the publication it's with noting that they aren't unbiased per say. More that they publish the most qualified leaders making their arguments across the spectrum of serious thinkers. Kissinger, Fukuyama, and Wendt are all featured alongside the famous "X Memo" when George Kennan wanted to publish his long telegram without going public himself.
In other words, you see the full discussion (largely) but from highly biased view points advocating their arguments across the range of debate. It's table stakes for staying current in where the boundaries of policy discussions are.
I'm British. I subscribe to the Financial Times and The Times. The former is a digital and print (weekends) subscription and the latter is solely digital. I have print subscriptions to the New Statesman and Spectator which sit on the left and right of the political spectrum respectively. I used to read the Telegraph but its tone in recent years has put me off. I also am a member of Tortoise, which specialises in 'slow news'.
I can't handle more newspaper subscriptions, both in terms of my income and also my time. I like to augment these subscriptions with free news sources, of which the BBC and Reuters are my favourites (former mostly via the BBC Sounds podcast app, and the latter via the website).
I came across Tortoise while re-evaluating where I get my news and media, and being more thoughtful about where I spend my time online, in the wake of the Reddit 3rd party app shutdown. Slow and thoughtful news feels like the exact opposite of doom scrolling through clickbait articles and constant bad-faith arguments in the comments (on Reddit and on most news sites). I'm enjoying it so far, there's a lot of deeper audio/podcast reporting in the archive that I need to start working through.
And I just like supporting independent media. There's not nearly enough good journalism in the UK. There's a print journal called 'Delayed Gratification' that has a similar slow news ethos that I've seen, might be worth checking out if you like Tortoise.
I'm glad to hear that you're enjoying it! The ethos is quite nice and reminds me of other experiments such as Republik in Switzerland - which is a magazine run by a co-operative. I hope that Tortoise are able to succeed in the long run, and I certainly agree with you that there's a dearth of considered and independent journalism in the UK.
I'm actually starting a journalism school placement with them tomorrow, which I'm looking forward to!
I discovered through a link on Tildes, actually, The Jacobin which I absolutely will not pretend isn’t super biased toward my socialist ideology. I’ve found their articles to be both comprehensive and easy reads, and a great mix of current events and general thought-provoking discussion. They do have a print publication which I intend to subscribe to in the future (I used to work in print and, eco-friendliness be damned in that respect, I’d like to keep it alive).
You can utilise the tag source.jacobin to see content posted from Jacobin to Tildes.
Soooo noted. I’m new here so any tidbits like that are much appreciated.
No worries. Happy to help!
From the UK: The Financial Times is good quality with obvious focus; the Independent is good quality but struggling to get numbers, and the Metro is a lower end easier to read tabloid. I mention these three first because they are the only newspapers in the UK that are not overtly hateful.
All of the rest - Telegraph, Times, Guardian, Mail, Express, Private Eye, Economist, New Statesman, Spectator (and the Sunday versions of the dailies) - are overtly hateful to trans people, and many of them are overtly anti-Black.
This doesn't stack up? They've got their opinions column that sometimes spouts weirdness towards... well, anymore. But I don't think they published anything directly by them that's anti-trans/racist in quite sometime?
Happy to be proven incorrect mind.
The Guardian routinely publishes anti-trans articles and views.
I've never seen one myself. Do you have any links please?
Not denying it. Just, not something I've encountered.
I don't care whether you believe me or not, and I have no interest in trying to persuade you. This is the politest way I can think of to tell you to do your own homework. I'm not going to engage with someone who hasn't bothered to type [guardian transphobia] into any search engine.
Generally, when you make a claim and someone wants to know more? you help out/guide people.
Cheers.
To keep up on national/international headlines, I usually pick up a Washington Post. They also have a Metro section that's good for local news in my area.
For a little more light, fun reading, Motor Trend and Car & Driver satisfy my interest in automotive topics.
The physical, printed medium feels more substantial and is easier to focus on.
FT and WSJ for US and financial news, The Economist for long form articles, and the three major news papers in my country, Valor, Estadão and Folha, from Brazil.