Not too long ago, I wrote a post about my news practice. In the past week or so I’ve been modifying those patterns a bit; and, beyond that, there have been some changes in industry.
Me and the NYT
I’ve been a bit more busy with work in the past few months, and my newspaper readership has gone down. Not too long ago, the New York Times announced that they’re going to a pay model for their online content starting next year, 2011. They’ll be slowly phasing out their free content by the end of the year. Perhaps some of this is due to people practicing the type of behavior I had suggested in my previous post. Most likely, it’s that they are running thin on their margins and they want to try and inject money into their system any way that they can.
I have since also cut out my use of the calibre software to aggregate news content, as I did before. The Sony Reader Store currently offers the New York Times for $14/month, or $0.75/issue. I’ve tried this out, and the formatting and general experience is quite great. I get enough online and through the wire that I don’t feel an urge to grab onto the full subscription, though daily issues when I want to catch up are a great option.
Podcasts
I did, for a time, subscribe to a number of technology podcasts from a variety of sources. Especially when commuting, it’s a great source of information. I’ve now moved on to audiobooks provided by OverDrive at my local library, and have since cut out all but three staples: “On Science” and “Technology” from NPR, and then the Phones Show Chat. These are enough to break up whatever book I’m listening to at the moment.
Internet news
I’ve been toning down the number of feeds from Google Reader, and I’ve been putting more into Twitter. You can see my current structure on this at my Twitter lists page. Google Reader then picks up the Ars Technica feed, Digg’s Technology section, and other random sites of friends, etc.
More books, less Internet
Fundamentally, I’ve made it more and more of a point to spend less time reading crap on the Internet, and more time reading books. The definition of the word “reading” has in some ways taken different steps in the tract of where technology and blogs and the Internet has taken it. In reading a book, where certain themes follow for hundreds of pages rather than two or five, there’s fundamentally a different way that our mind is processing information. I’m saying this, of course, on the Internet and not a book; and I feel that I’m writing it for a reason; so I don’t mean to imply that one is necessarily more valuable than another. With that said, though, what I’ve been tending towards with the above processes has lent me more time to get through books, gaining back some sense of worth in the time that slips through my hands over the course of a given day. Audiobooks, too, have been adding up my hours; while cooking or eating or doing other tasks that require some degree of movement, I’m getting something into my ears which has been both enjoyable and educational.
Well, that’s where I’m at today, anyway; who knows what’s in store next.