New Perspective on Jax Role in Florida's History

[Charles Hunter]

Lake - does the library card work for the NYT and WAPO?

[thelakelander]

Now those are two that aren't available!

Here's what's listed for Florida, NY and DC:

Florida


New York


DC

[jaxlongtimer]

It is well known that virtual/online ads don't generate anything close to the revenue of traditional print ads.  Other than a handful of widely read national publications (e.g. NY Times, WSJ, Washington Post), nearly every print publication has either drastically scaled back to a shadow of its former self, begged for donations to supplement revenue and/or simply gone out of business.  This is a tremendous loss to, especially, local news coverage and investigations, that will yield more results like Mr. Santos running for Congress and getting elected based on a pack of lies because no one was really watching.  Imagine what will happen behind closed doors here with no one peering in.

I subscribe to the print version of the T-U which includes full access to their website.  While I am not happy with the print subscription rates* (which I have been able to negotiate down some by calling them to ask for better deals), I do it to support local journalism.  I also find that I can more easily digest a range of articles not clearly obvious on the website (call me old fashioned but I do prefer scanning a printed page over a screen when dealing with a larger volume of reading).  It's also easier to "save" a printed article than to try to print it off the web sometimes.

In the end, you get what you pay for.  Paying for the T-U is as much about preserving a vital function in our community as it is about anything else.  I can't imagine what the last few years here would be like without people at the T-U like Nate Monroe.  You can call him or others at the paper too "liberal" (I don't), but they have uncovered a tremendous amount of "hanky-panky" in this town and maybe have prevented a lot more due to those fearful of being exposed.

Lastly, when some of us complain about how uninformed our fellow citizens are about our local goings-on and a reduced level of engagement, I believe you can tie this directly to the reduction in readership of the Times-Union.  Similarly, this occurs throughout the country and, I believe, contributes to the divisiveness of our country and erosion of leadership as people turn to unvetted postings on social media instead.  This just adds to the concern above.

It will be a sad day if the T-U goes to less than daily editions.  I hope they continue to focus their limited resources on local politics, government and community in a way no one else can regularly match.

*You can always buy occasional printed copies at a convenience or grocery store if you don't want the paper everyday.  Lastly, subscribing to the virtual version (which includes the e-edition that fully replicates the printed paper) is much cheaper than the print version and is better than not supporting the paper at all.

FYI, I note that the monthly full online rate is $14.99/month (comparable to a NetFlix subscription or 50 cents/day) and for daily print delivery, $30.00/mo. (a mere slice of a robust cable TV subscription or $1/day).  At today's drink prices, it's equal to one or two specialty drinks a month and the paper would be a lot better for you too  .  I might add that, over the years, many an informative article or coupon in the paper has saved me far more than the cost of a subscription.

Further to my comments in bold in my prior post above, the national press is bemoaning the same issue as highlighted by the totally fraudulent biography and background created by NY Congressman-elect George Santos that no one exposed prior to his election.  This alone should be reason enough to support our local journalism even if there are ways to get it "free."

The media's failure to dig into Santos shows the predicament that local newsrooms face in 2022. Newsday dominates the media landscape on Long Island. And its reporters do quality work—they turned out an important investigation just a few years ago that exposed racism in the local real-estate industry. But they don't have the resources to cover everything—not even everything in their political backyard—and they appear to have written off NY-3 as low priority given the district's Democratic tilt. So did all the other once-mighty New York–area media operations.

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2022/12/george-santos-fraud-long-island/672587/

[BridgeTroll]

At today's drink prices, it's equal to one or two specialty drinks a month

Based upon what is in the news... I believe I would rather have the drinks...