Which newspaper to support?

[Jason]

A lot of newspapers are offering low priced subscriptions for the first 3-6 months.. I'd like to support national newspapers online so they don't disappear entirely. So, If you were to support a Canadian newspaper by getting a subscription, which would it be?

I'd like to have a couple political slants one on the left and one on the right but really can only afford one. According to Media Bias/Fact Check, the Toronto Star is slightly to moderately left-wing and the Globe and Mail is slightly to moderately right-wing. Both rate very high factually, it's just editorials and the loaded words they use in headlines (and sometimes articles) that have the bias.

Btw, check out the media bias/fact check website for ratings of media and organizations in media and fact checking, it's pretty good. While any rating of the two is going to subjective, each rating shows the summary of how they came to that conclusion. They also give the rating for Canada on the Freedom Index which is created by journalists worldwide. If anyone knows of any other sites that rate publications based on bias and fact checking, let me know.

[ssfc72]

I don't have much interest in politics, so I can never remember how the term right wing/left wing or Republican/Democrat relates to a political party being Conservative or Liberal.
I do remember the Toronto Star newspaper being called the Red Star because it's articles tended to favour the Liberal political party. :-)

. According to Media Bias/Fact Check, the Toronto Star is slightly to moderately left-wing and the Globe and Mail is slightly to moderately right-wing. Both rate very high factually, it's just editorials and the loaded words they use in headlines (and sometimes articles) that have the bias.

[Jason]

Republican is right-wing, far right-wing I'd say but it didn't use to be that way. Democrat is left-wing but I think it's more left of centre like the Liberals. The Toronto Star is definitely a Liberal newspaper but factually they get high marks, they just choose stories that make their guys look good like the National Post does with theirs. The interesting thing to me is that in Canada it's blue for Conservatives (right-wing), and red for Liberals (left-wing), in the US the colours are the opposite for left/right wing.

You don't have to really have much interest in politics to be concerned about the left-wing/right-wing bias. Politics infiltrates a lot of views, not just obvious ones, but more so in the US. Stances on taxes, spending, role of religion in society, gun control, abortion, military spending, immigration, multiculturalism, and other issues are often either formed by one's political biases or lead to a bias for pet issues. Even some conspiracies or pseudoscience are associated with the left or right wing like being anti-vax (usually left-wing) or contrails (right-wing). I can't imagine anyone that doesn't have opinions on at least some of those issues but they all end up in the realm of politics.

There's another way of looking at political positions that has two axes (political compass). The one above from left to right and another that goes from authoritarian to libertarian. Communism would be hard left wing and hard authoritarian, fascism would be hard right-wing and hard authoritarian. Our parties are mostly on the authoritarian left but middle-ish. Even the Conservative party here is only slightly right of centre but with a similar level of authoritarian.

That's probably more than anyone cares to know but it's my small bit of the world. But the real question, Bill, is what newspaper to you prefer? I'm not worried too much about the political slant. Just curious what people enjoy, particularly if they paid for one, which it'd be.

[ssfc72]

That's a tough question, I don't know anymore, what quality of news reporting, the different newspaper's provide. Maybe I would consider the Globe and Mail newspaper website, to support.

Used to be, the Canadian newspapers tended to focus their news reporting on Ontario news and I was always wanted to read more news from Western Canada and East Coast Canada.
I now, very rarely go to a newspaper website to read the news and I just use the Google News for Canada website and the BBC and website for getting the general news and the Globe and Mail website for the business news.
Years and years ago back in the 80's and 90's I got the Peterborough Examiner delivered to my house and I sometimes would buy the Saturday Toronto Star.

[fox]

We buy the Sunday Star almost every week and the Saturday Star most weeks. The Sunday Star includes a New York Times supplement, which I find to be very good reading. I wouldn't say that the Star is strongly Ontario-focused; it does a good job of covering important national and international news. Leaning is left of center, which appeals to me. And it generally seems factually accurate, at least when I compare it to other sources I trust.

We don't get the Globe, but I think it's a good paper, too. Again, broadly focused. Leaning is right of center, but not overly so. Not to be compared to Fox News. Again, I think it's generally factually accurate.

I actually get most of my news from the CBC News website and The National at night. Lately, both are 95% focused on Covid-19, which is good and bad. The newspapers presently give better coverage of other new items.

[buster]

Same as Fox in almost everyhing, though we get the local paper (now owned by the Star), partly to help keep it alive. Saturday Star and Examiner delivered.

[Jason]

People still get newspapers delivered? ;-) Thanks for your input, guys.

Like Buster, I want to keep some papers alive. Wish it could be all of the main national papers (Star, Globe, National Post) because I think they all offer important perspectives. If we don't support media with some of our dollars, it likely won't be around. It's bad enough that 2-3 companies own all the newspapers in this country so our perspectives are already limited.

The Examiner doesn't offer much but at least it offers some local news. Peterborough This Week and the Examiner seem to share a lot of their articles if not all of them. I have a feeling that they're both owned by Torstar.

[buster]

"People still get newspapers delivered? ;-) "

I love spreading a newspaper out and 'scanning'. Can do puzzles with a pen, can see things I wouldn't have looked for. I miss the serendipitous finds at a library now too, the finding of things you normally wouldn't haven't thought about. And it gives me a conversation during delivery.

AND... it gets me off the screen!

[Jason]

This is true. Do you shout to the paperboy/papergirl nowadays? Reading the dead-tree version of the paper is also easier unless you have a 4K 40" screen. At least in it's normal format. That's how I read the Examiner through Pressreader but I have to drag the paper around the screen to read articles. I even like seeing the ads, it's nostalgic.

When I was a teenager, there was this really cute papergirl, Rachel... always wanted to ask her out, never did. I spoiled my youth. I was also a paperboy for a year or so, used to know what the top stories were just by delivering the paper. And boy, were my hands black by the time I go home. Good memories.

[Jason]

I ended up going with the Toronto Star online subscription. It was between them and the Globe but the introductory deal for the Star was better - $1/week for 24 weeks.