I got the renewal notice for my Philadelphia Inquirer subscription. I don’t think I’m going to do it.
After the most recent round of layoffs at the Inquirer, it occurred to me to check how much of the paper’s content was being generated by the paper itself. In the front page “A” section, where the national/international news go, there are usually two or three stories by Inquirer staff writers on page 1. Inside, there might be one or two Inquirer-written sidebars. Everything else comes from the Associated Press, the New York Times, the Washington Post, or another news service. I don’t need the Inquirer for that – I can read it on the Web, or just buy my own copy of the Post from a newsstand. (I’d check into home delivery if I didn’t think Pattie would kill me.)
On the philly.com Web site, a lot of Inquirer and Daily News writers have blogs, chats and Q-and-A forums. And that’s great, but you know, analysis and opinion isn’t really the niche newspapers are suited to fill. I can get analysis and opinion from any number of blogs and web sites. Honest to god reporting, though, that takes resources and skill. It’s what I wanted to support by buying the Inquirer. But if they’re not going to give me any, why should I bother?
I opened up today’s edition of the Inquier, and there was no local analysis of the State of the Union speech. Nothing from Pennsylvania’s newly elected senator or the new representatives from the Philadelphia area. No discussion of how Pennsylvania’s new health care proposals might intersect with what Bush wants to do. Zip. What was there was recycles from the more-extensive coverage provided by the Post, the Times, or other outlets.
I don’t need to kill more trees to bring an out of date news aggregator to my doorstep once a day. And I don’t need to keep paying money for something I don’t want and that doesn’t give me what I’m paying for.