Thursday, February 21, 2008

Canceling my newspaper subscription after over a quarter century

I've had a tradition of reading the Minneapolis newspaper --the Star Tribune (http://www.startribune.com/)--at breakfast for about 30 years. Today I canceled my subscription. There were a lot of reasons (in no particular order):
  • In the last few layoffs, the paper has eliminated a number of my favorite reporters and writers.
  • The STrib is providing even less coverage of things in the city of Minneapolis than before--and it wasn't great before. And I really don't care about the actions of the city council of a small exurban suburb.
  • I can now get through the paper in about 5 minutes--that is how little usable content there is in it.
  • The editorial policy seems to be controlled by market considerations, not a publishing philosophy. One example is that the the paper--the largest paper in the state--didn't endorse anyone for President or Senate before our caucuses on Super Tuesday.
  • They no longer commission public opinion polls.
  • The new owners killed their foundation that funded some great Minneapolis nonprofits.
  • I'm getting my news from online sources. For local news it is primarily the Twin Cities Daily Planet (http://www.tcdailyplanet.net) and MinnPost (http://www.minnpost.com/)
  • Canceling my subscription fits with the "reduce, reuse, recycle" philosophy. I'm reducing.
  • The Strib is no longer worth the price.