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Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

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Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#101

Post by itsoktocry »

>It doesn't align exactly with my political values but I've always found the writing to be of high quality

I'm just going to throw it out there that maybe your political values are beginning to overwhelm your other opinions?

The Economist's content is unique outside of, maybe, the Financial Times in your list. You're certainly not going to find much similarity with The Jacobin, they're polar opposites politically.

The best replacement for The Economist is probably a major newspaper.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#102

Post by itsoktocry »

pydry wrote: post #98
nerdawson wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> …would like to see an alternative that is at the same quality level as the Economist (but with more neutral reporting and individual author names given)… More publications should remove the byline. Individual attribution incentivises journalists to try and stand out which typically means making intentionally inflammatory statements.

The literal exact opposite happens. Journalists without a byline or with a shrunken byline have little incentive to build up a brand as a trustworthy and thorough reporter because they will derive no benefit from their reputation. When their bosses lean on them to produce crap to gin pageviews up just before bonus season they therefore produce crap. Media owners want this. They want journalism to be commodities becau…

>Journalists without a byline or with a shrunken byline have little incentive to build up a brand as a trustworthy and thorough reporter because they will derive no benefit from their reputation.

Or...journalists without a byline have little incentive to "build up a brand" through by appealing to a "side" or sketchy reporting. It cuts both ways.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#103

Post by sgu999 »

nivenkos wrote: post #18
montgomery_r wrote: post #3

The Spectator has - generally high quality writing - a quirky (but data driven) approach - a longer history than any other magazine - a UK focus - a right wing bent, but with plenty of left wing ( or apolitical) writers for balance. Might be a solution? I gave up on the Economist after 20years 20 years ago, for much the same reasons you state!

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/what-brexit-looks-like/ Just objectively that has turned out to be complete nonsense...

Any recommendation of a fair description of the impact of Brexit on the UK and why it's not desirable? Asking as an EU citizen who keeps hearing all day how much these Brits are struggling without the rest of us.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#104

Post by frippertronics »

jll29 wrote: post #21

Very timely question, I just purchased an issue of the Economist because I was toying with the idea of re-instating a previously held subscription. I share the disappointment. In the past, even just the book reviews were so good that they "forced" me to buy 2-3 of the reviewed books; that issue didn't intrigue me. I don't have an answer whether it's a general trend or not, as I'm trained not to ascribe too much weigh…

+1 for Le Monde Diplomatique. They also have localised variations with region-specific articles in addition to the translated main articles. The political orientation is to the left, but IMO it doesn't get in the way of the content.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#105

Post by null0ranje »

brylie wrote: post #71

What are your thoughts on the journalism in The Atlantic? https://www.theatlantic.com/

I’ve let my subscription to the Atlantic lapse. The writing quality and topic selection are closer to a second-tier college newspaper than a serious journalistic publication.

Most of their talented contributors are mostly gone, and the current crop of “cool kid” writers seem to just regurgitate what they are following on Twitter.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#106

Post by harvey9 »

itsoktocry wrote: post #101

> It doesn't align exactly with my political values but I've always found the writing to be of high quality I'm just going to throw it out there that maybe your political values are beginning to overwhelm your other opinions? The Economist's content is unique outside of, maybe, the Financial Times in your list. You're certainly not going to find much similarity with The Jacobin , they're polar opposites politically.…

They did indicate that quality of writing is more important than agreeable opinions.

I take the same view in subscribing to Private Eye.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#107

Post by Aromasin »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #79

Could you give examples of how quality has declined? I'm scared if a rag like Jacobin is in the running. When people say that the quality of a publication has declined they often mean they disagree with things that are published. Many also say that they seek out blogs and other sources that I assume they agree with. I read these publications because I often disagree with their opinion pieces. It's a value add. Why wo…

I've discussed how I think the quality has decline elsewhere in the thread, but in short, they flip-flop so as to be on the "correct" side of the conversation too often instead of admitting fault, their UK/EU commentary has been of such a low quality I could find it in a tabloid newspaper if I wanted, and their general Anglo-centric view of the world is not valuable to me explicitly for the reason you describe; I'm British, I don't need more of a pro-UK narrative.

I put the Jacobin explicitly because I wanted to make it clear that I'm open to the whole political spectrum. I've read some good articles on there, as well as bad. I'm happy to be convinced out of subscribing to it. I've had a lot of people say it's a rag, but not explain how. Is it because it's poor journalism, or is it because it's socialist?

And no, it's not that I'm looking for validation of my own opinions. That's why I've put it out to a forum and not just picked the one most appealing to me.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#108

Post by that_guy_iain »

jakozaur wrote: post #22

I am long-time fun of Economist, but unfortunately the quality decreases. E.g. last issue EU is frozen and claim so many people will die in Europe due to high energy prices. First, I find they did not explain their model well. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Second, the correlation does not imply causation or whether extrapolations are solid. It looks like there might be mistakes on that front an…

> First, I find they did not explain their model well. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

It's not an extraordinary claim tho. Literally, every year old people die because of cold weather and not being able to afford the proper heating. This is basically old news. The cost of living "crisis" means that the price of energy is not becoming a matter for the average working person. This isn't really extraorinary to claim since salaries aren't exactly high and many people struggle to pay their bills by default with the price of food, energy, etc all going up while their salaries aren't going up then it clearly means some people will struggle to pay for the heating.

Re: Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?

#110

Post by mejutoco »

abm53 wrote: post #43
corbet wrote: post #31

I bailed on the Economist a couple of years ago after at least a couple decades...thought I was the only one who felt it had declined. I haven't really found a good replacement still. If nothing else, the pain they put me through to end the subscription was enough to prevent me from ever signing up again.

Their “customer retention” process is extremely aggressive, even by most traditional print publications’ standards.

You should see the unsubscribe process of FAZ and SZ in Germany. It is like signing up to a gym or a phone contract. FAZ does not even accept credit cards! they want your IBAN and approval for them to charge you every month (like an utility bill) for one year. Then if you forget to cancel x days in advance it restarts.

And wasn't there a law (in EU) that signing up should be as easy and cancelling, if anyone remembers. Most of them allow signup via website but ask you to call to cancel (even after cancelling online, SZ).

I say this as a previous subscriber to FAZ, SZ, and the Economist.

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