I’m not an expert, but… this is why I don’t buy newspapers any more
I used to like newspapers. Really. I loved them. When I was growing up, we always had newspapers around - my parents thought they'd be useful in teaching their kids to read. And I suppose they were, a bit. We had all sorts - the Sun, the Mail, the Times, never really the Telegraph or the Guardian or anything like that. I always used to read the local paper when it came through the letterbox - primarily to see if anything had happened in places I'd heard of rather than places I could only imagine (it usually hadn't, but such is life in dreary cookie-cutter suburbia).
When I was at university I think I started buying the Guardian because that's kind of what you're meant to do when you're a student, but I did enjoy reading it as well. Well, bits of it. And I think I'd get the Independent and the Times as well, or Telegraph when I wanted to read some sport, and News of the Screws on a Sunday for something a bit different, and the unintentional hilarity of the Michael Winner column of course. When I started working, I moved on to the Mirror, which I liked, and then, well that was about it.
I don't buy newspapers any more. I was at the garage this morning going to buy some milk and bread and thought Why not get a paper? But then I looked at the bloody things, and I thought: Actually, I know why not. What do I want to find out about? Well, some news. All the news in the paper is going to be out of date. There might be a couple of columns that are relevant to stuff that I'm interested in, but there's no guarantee that I'm going to agree with them - which isn't a problem, but if you find yourself disagreeing with columnists more often than you do agreeing with them, why are you buying the paper in the first place?
Sportswise, I want to find out about my team, and I have no interest in Premiership transfers that haven't happened yet, or Premiership players saying they'd like to score goals and win games, and Premiership managers saying they want to win more games than they lose, and all the other obvious banality - but in a newspaper you're going to be lucky if your team - unless it's Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester United or Chelsea - gets more than three or four paragraphs, sometimes even less than that; sometimes you're just shunted into the 'round-up' bits. Why bother with that at all?
The thing is, time after time, in every section, you're faced with a tsunami of guff about stuff you're not interested in, just in case you might be interested in it, and the bits you actually are interested in seem tiny in comparison. With Sunday papers it's even worse - there are entire sections immediately consigned to the recycling bin without ever needing to be touched. Sure, it's great value to have so much stuff for such a relatively small price; but on the other hand, it's not great value at all when you don't actually want all the crap you're being given. It gets to the point where you've ploughed through half a ton of flabby lifestyle marketing bollocks about stuff you can't ever possibly afford or ever even have the faintest dream of being able to afford, just to get to the fucking TV guide and the cartoons.
But there's something else. Reading Sunday papers, especially the Sunday 'quality' papers, makes me sad. It makes me feel like a failure. I don't really buy into the whole social Veblenism of it, to try and buy into the whole idea that some holiday on a gold-plated yacht in the middle of the Bahamas eating quails' brains carved into the shape of exploding fireworks off the back of a diamond-encrusted flamingo is really going to be something that I could ever even aspire to, let alone get anywhere near to if I saved up all my money ever. I can't be fucked with looking at half-a-grand's worth of handbag, or shoes, or whatever it is, thinking that is anything to do with my life or has anything whatsoever to do with me. It makes me pissed off. What the fuck has this got to do with me? Page after page of luxury cars that I've not got a rat's chance in hell of ever being able to crash into, let alone buy. It's like MTV Cribs - it just makes me feel shit about my own life, rather than having any of the magic rubbing off onto me. Oh look, someone else marvellously wealthy and with loads of shit that they've bought. Oh look, another home cinema. Fucking magic. Ooh, a big marble bathtub. Good for you. It gets a bit wearying after a while.
It's funny but I don't feel so overwhelmed by the dozens of choices I don't like when I'm thinking of something like broadcasting, for example. The BBC offers loads of programmes that I'm never going to watch, whereas on the other hand it offers a significant proportion of things that are absolutely delightful, and which I enjoy very much. (ITV, in comparison, is just loads of stuff I don't like and am never going to watch. But that's just me.) But I don't feel overwhelmed by it at once. I can pick and choose things as the day progresses, or using the iPlayer. I don't have to constantly turn page after page after page of stuff that I don't like, reading column after column that I find annoying or grating, chucking supplement after supplement into the bin.
Like a lot of people, I feel quite liberated by not having a newspaper any more. I might scan one if there's one knocking about, of course, but it's not something that I go out and buy. In fact, those times when I do just pick up a newspaper remind me why I don't buy them any more - there's so much there that's not for me, so little that I find myself agreeing with or enjoying. Sometimes you'll read an entire newspaper just for a crossword or a TV review. Is that enough? I don't know. It's a lot of effort to put in as a reader for not very much back. I don't think it's the cost that puts me off, I think it's the fact that I don't really enjoy what's in there, and I can seek out any number of entertaining reads online. That's just me, and I know it's very different for other people.
I'm not saying that it's a good thing that people don't buy newspapers any more, because I know it's an industry that often provides very important challenges to Government. There are occasional moments of brilliance that you probably don't get anywhere else, in any other medium. But I can't keep on chucking a quid away every day in the hope that somewhere down the line something good turns up. Maybe that's a selfish attitude, but it's the one I have. I love reading, but I don't love reading newspapers any more. I don't think they've got significantly worse, but maybe I've become more impatient with them, more demanding, more easily annoyed. Or maybe it's the case that there are more readily available sources of reading material and entertainment.
I know that a lot of people will say "You'll miss them when they're gone" and I probably will, or would. But I can't see myself starting to buy them again any time soon.
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Hello. I'm a Bristol-based writer and soon-to-be-redundant journalist. You can read more about me and the Enemies site here, or follow me on Twitter. Email me if you like - antonvowl at live dot co dot uk
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August 8th, 2010 - 12:09
How about the Morning Star? If you ignore all the “revolution now, comrades” stuff it has some quite relevant stories about the labour (small “L”) movement that the mainstream papers don’t touch and some good reviews of films and books etc. I know what you mean though, especially with regards to the sunday papers – the Sunday Times “Rich List” that they do is symptomatic of the wider problem…
August 8th, 2010 - 12:30
I haven’t bought that in years either but I guess it might be worth a look. Front pages are usually pretty different to what you see elsewhere.
August 8th, 2010 - 14:44
Funny, I’m thinking about moving to the Morning Star, too. I agree, most newspapers seem like lifestyle magazines, just printed on cheap paper and sold daily. But it’s not just their irrelevance, as much as my irrelevance. If I thought I could read about something and write to my MP and make even a tiny difference, I would. But my latest “elected member” is a totally thick Tory twat who likes military history and Victorian paintings. I’m sure HE buys the papers.
August 8th, 2010 - 15:45
Why not try The Guardian Weekly?
Delivered through your letterbox.
No waste-of-time supplements and hardly any adverts.
August 8th, 2010 - 17:21
I’ve considered it, I’ve thought about relying on blogs, the Economist, my special interest magazines (for example publications by groups I’m a member of) & not bothering with a daily. But I still read them most days, as despite the fact that I begrudge the time I just wouldn’t be as well-informed if I didn’t.
I don’t know about anyone else but I don’t want to & probably wouldn’t be able to read dozens of articles a day on the internet, my eyes don’t want to be looking at screens for so long.
I can imagine the sense of freedom but not just now. Although you are right about the travel supplements- glad I’m not alone in ignoring them!
August 8th, 2010 - 18:17
I declare my interest. I work for a newspaper.
I understand your reasons for not buying one. I think you are not, in any way, swimming against the tide. It seems to be the way that so many people are going.
But I believe now, more than almost any other time, newspapers are very important. A good example of this is the Raoul Moat saga.
While so many people, rightly, moaned about the ridiculously over-dramatic, yet information-light coverage on 24-hour news channels and online sites, it proved – in my opinion – that the best place to get distilled, reasoned, considered and *legally safe* news is from quality newspapers that don’t breathlessly need to keep your attention with swooshes and breaking news tickers.
I know I’m in the minority. I know I’m working in an industry that is changing radically. But I still believe in newspapers for being able to provide *journalism* and not just information.
Of course, your blog is something I would also put in the same category.
August 8th, 2010 - 18:44
Totally agree. I had loads of time on my hands last Sunday so ended up buying The Observer but it was a hard choice because none of them really jump out at me. I sort of liked the Guardian on a Saturday, but it was far too “middle class” and liberal for me (just banged on about yummy mummies, being eco-friendly, camping – which I used to love until all the Guardian readers started doing it too). And, the “quality papers” – also totally agree. I probably earn a fair bit more than the average wage but I could no way in a million years buy any of the clothes, holidays etc that they go on about. And the real kick in the teeth on one of the papers is the interview on the back page of the “money” pullout. Here, a very rich person tells me how rich they are by answering questions like “How much money do you have in your wallet?” (usually £250 vs my £5) and “How many properties do you have?”.
August 8th, 2010 - 19:13
Same here, there’s so much information everywhere, why bother with cumbersome newspapers.Although, I still like to read them from time to time if there’s one lying around and I happen to have time to read it.
Also, I do like to see how the news are reported in different countries, the american will have a different point of view and approach and then the same whether it’s the French…
August 8th, 2010 - 21:18
I like papers, I like being able to hold something physical and read stuff on it. But, blogs are just better at analysis, some of the most fantastic minds living today have blogs, and they’re up against… Littlejohn.
Papers do a good job aggregating news, most blogs don’t do much original reporting, just sifting out the best news and presenting an interesting angle on it. (However, maybe bloggers could survive just off the Associated Press, most papers just replicated their copy).
The Morning Star is a bit tedious at times frankly, but I do occasionally read it just for a change.
I read a lot online, unlike asquith, and I’m sure my eyes are the worse for it, but the material online is just better frankly, there’s a lot less cliché, and at the end of the day what I’m looking for is a little blue sky thinking.
August 8th, 2010 - 22:22
Interesting, I agree with your entire article and your personal history of newspaper reading very closely mirrors my own. I haven’t bought a paper for years for the same reasons as you mentioned. I have created my own daily newspaper in a way, a collection of RSS feeds (including yours) that I am guaranteed to be interested in, plus a quick scan of the Guardian iPhone app.
Interstingly my dad has done pretty much the same, he just buys the Observer now after a lifetime of having a daily newspaper. He too got fed up with the wealth-centric views of The Times. My father in law is the opposite, he religiously buys the Mail every day and I can’t imagine him ever stopping, despite the fact he often admits to not reading it all.
I can quite imagine that newspapers will become more and more irrelevant in the future. In a similar way to how some brand name products have lost out to ubiquitous competitors, if you can get your basic news from any number of sources why stay loyal to one particular publication. I can imagine that personalized news services could become quite popular (similar to the way the Guardian news app lets you choose which sections you see), but I doubt that any single newspaper is going to crack it… For the same reason I think the pay walls will ultimately fail as well…..
Blimey that was a long comment, look forward to your next post, they always make me think!
August 9th, 2010 - 13:51
Spot on, as usual, Anton. I gave up buying the Sundays years ago because I realised I didn’t want to waste my weekend trawling through the endless bits of tree instead of actually living my life. And like you say, so much of it is aimed at very rich people who want to buy stuff. Sadly that’s not me. I do buy a paper about once a week but most of it ends up in my pet chickens’ nesting box (the Times is very absorbent…).
It’s often the out-of-touch, warped opinions of some of the columnists that really turn me off – not to mention the overpaid politicians who are still earning yet more money writing for the broadsheets when some journalists I know are moving in with relatives to keep a roof over their heads. I read the Evening Standard for free on the train when I go into London and it’s ok I suppose. I quite like Chris Blackhurst’s City commentary. But then I get to the column pages in the middle and the inane stupidity and bitchiness of it just turns my stomach and I think, why am I reading this? My other half feels the same. I’m beginning to think some newspapers really are doomed.
August 10th, 2010 - 14:22
Another point is that papers are mucho Londoncentric. I once sent a furious email to the well-meaning Maddie Bunting when she wrote a piece celebrating her kids’ multiethnic and multifaith school, as if all British schools with Muslims in are like that. In some LEAs outside London, there is virtual segregation system in place and its probably contributing to increasing racism and Islamophobia.
August 16th, 2010 - 18:37
The only paper publications I ever read these days are Private Eye – which has gone down massively in my estimation since it stole Tim Ireland’s high-quality journalism, and then Eye employee Adam Macqueen implied Ireland was a “nutter on a bus” – and the LRB.
The LRB is a tremendously unpretty bluestocking of a magazine but I love it like an old friend. I’m happy to keep reading the it because I don’t feel it’s ever broken the contract with me of: if you read this, most of it will be interesting.
It does occasionally dwell for whole issues on things like Palestine. But then maybe more papers should be spending whole issues talking about such things. If I can trust it to be interesting and clever, and as it will easily fill large gaps in my knowledge every issue, then I don’t feel like I’m scratching around for a crossword to justify my having bought it in the first place. It’s always worth the subscription.
October 23rd, 2010 - 09:55
right on!
I can count on one hand the number of newspapers I’ve bought in the last 20 years. For some of the reasons you mention and more, but mostly because I worked for one for quite a while