Poll: Do you, or anyone in your house, buy a newspaper?

watercooledman · 28 Sep 2021 at 10:06

daily sport

FoxEye · 28 Sep 2021 at 10:10

Never have, never will. Complete waste of trees.

rhobbyh · 28 Sep 2021 at 12:18

we get the daily mail on a saturday mainly for the week's tv guide. the horse racing is one of the better ones for the tabloids so I might have a look at that. and the Mrs reads Bel Mooney. I suppose we get a quid's worth out of it (not sure how much it costs)

psd99 · 28 Sep 2021 at 12:31

Love reading the paper, espeically on the weekends.

Aint nothing better than going to watch test cricket in the glorious sunshine and reading a copy the times
such a slow sport sometimes.

Frenzy · 28 Sep 2021 at 12:54

Buying a newspaper is a waste of resources in my opinion.

Jean-F · 28 Sep 2021 at 14:21

dLockers said:
We were taught early on, only thickos read the sun.

I always felt the same, perhaps we’re being a tad condescending.
My wife buys it for her niece, and sends her a daily code inside which enables the niece to buy cheap caravan holidays.
On occasion I’ve been in a supermarket and my wife has called, asking me to, “buy The Sun for Zöe”, I always say that I’d rather not, I worry that someone will see me buying it and think that I read it.

V F said:
Who remembers the days they wrapped them in your fish/sausage supper? Sitting near the seaside or in the car near the seaside.

Obviously the grease proof paper was in between the food and paper.

Was that a thing? I thought that it was a throwaway gag used by Northern end of the pier comics.

MookJong said:
Does anyone remember on a Saturday night watching Blind Date or Stars in their Eyes and during the adverts the News of the World or Sunday Mirror would be advertising some EXCLUSIVE STORY available in the paper the next day! Usually some low budged knocked up in 5 minutes advert with high drama voiceover of a scandal that would "Shock the world!!!" and only avaioable in that paper in the morning.

Looking back its a bit sick knowing what papers like the News of The World were actually up to.

My dad called the NOW the barmaid’s bible.

Milkyway · 28 Sep 2021 at 14:36

Is Linda Lusardi still on page 3... She is my favourite.

GGizmo · 28 Sep 2021 at 14:45

Speaking of Page 3...

I was dating this American woman, about 20 years ago, and I was flying out to see her family. Her grandfather was interested in seeing what was in our newspapers. So I took him over a selection of them, some had the Page 3 photo. I hadn't thought anything of it as Page 3 was just a normal part of the newspaper.

Before I handed them over the ex checked them and saw the Page 3 and said "you can't show porn to my grandfather!". It reminded me how more conservative American society is when it comes to sexual matters. I did hand them to him and he didn't comment on the Page 3. Maybe she removed that page? :confused:

Dirk Diggler · 28 Sep 2021 at 15:16

Jean-F said:
Was that a thing?

Yes, it was.

bainbridge · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:11

I haven't bought them for years but, thankfully, the in laws buy a local daily and gives them to me instead of recycling. They're great for DIY and stuffing wet boots and trainers.

Kelt · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:24

Haven't bought a newspaper, or indeed, any (new) printed matter for decades, and have no plans to do so in the near, or far, future.

Kelt · 28 Sep 2021 at 17:27

V F said:
Who remembers the days they wrapped them in your fish/sausage supper? Sitting near the seaside or in the car near the seaside.

Obviously the grease proof paper was in between the food and paper.

God yes, our local (when I was a young'un, more than half a century ago) served fish and chips in newspapers, and there was no grease proof paper!

And they used to taste exquisite!!

V F · 28 Sep 2021 at 21:39

Kelt said:
God yes, our local (when I was a young'un, more than half a century ago) served fish and chips in newspapers, and there was no grease proof paper!

And they used to taste exquisite!!

I still remember it up to about, 1993/94. Fold, fold, fold, tuck. Bringing them back on a Saturday to then watch Gladiators.

Then in came the polystyrene boxes.

Quartz · 28 Sep 2021 at 21:49

I subscribe online. I read the Telegraph and the Guardian. My mother gets the Times. After lunch at the club I do like to settle down with the Times and a pot of tea. I also take a gander at Coumtry Life for Tottering by Gently and the bridge column.

Mr Blonde said:
I've always read from more than one source to get a more rounded view in general.

This. Though I wouldn't describe the Times as right wing.

regulus · 28 Sep 2021 at 21:51

No way will I spend a penny on news. I won't believe it anyway. With NZ being a village I've been warned by two 'journalists' that writes news fiction for an online 'news' site not to believe it. It's heavily slanted towards analytics. Which I thought was nice of them to admit but something a brainless ape would know anyway.

I do however page through my local free rag. I first have to give it a good shake to have all the ads and crap fall out in the recycling bin and even then there's only about 3 pages of news. And I mean literally, only about 3. The rest is estate agents buying ads and ads amateurishly disguised as news. We get a free magazine once every few weeks which is quite good. That I'll read a bit.

But newspapers, no way. Not since I lived back in the UK many many years ago. And then it was the occasional Sunday Times.

My parents still get the paper every day and every Sunday, and proceed to complain about it every day and every Sunday. But like trained circus monkeys they're at the shop to buy the paper, every day and every Sunday.

robfosters · 28 Sep 2021 at 21:55

regulus said:
No way will I spend a penny on news. I won't believe it anyway. With NZ being a village I've been warned by two 'journalists' that writes news fiction for an online 'news' site not to believe it. It's heavily slanted towards analytics. Which I thought was nice of them to admit but something a brainless ape would know anyway.

I do however page through my local free rag. I first have to give it a good shake to have all the ads and crap fall out in the recycling bin and even then there's only about 3 pages of news. And I mean literally, only about 3. The rest is estate agents buying ads and ads amateurishly disguised as news. We get a free magazine once every few weeks which is quite good. That I'll read a bit.

But newspapers, no way. Not since I lived back in the UK many many years ago. And then it was the occasional Sunday Times.

My parents still get the paper every day and every Sunday, and proceed to complain about it every day and every Sunday. But like trained circus monkeys they're at the shop to buy the paper, every day and every Sunday.

Fiction, really?

So are you honestly telling me that Freddie Starr didn’t eat a hamster and Elvis isn’t working in a chippie in Bradford?

Nasher · 28 Sep 2021 at 21:57

No, but they keep forcing one through my letterbox anyway.

Pawnless Endgame · 28 Sep 2021 at 23:19

dLockers said:
I hope you've saved them, apparently some of them were right gems worth a few quid now!

I threw away the plastic jewel cases, but I have kept the CDs and their sleeves/inlays and they're sorted into a 208-sleeve flip CD album, like what DJs use. I could bulk-buy some blank cases so that I could rebuild the cases but they won't be the original cases.

robfosters said:
I loved future music back in the 90’s. I was a teenager with little money and used to look longingly at the shiny synths like the JP8000, Prophecy, Trinity, Quasimudi Raven. I actually bought a JP8000 a few years back. I didn’t particularly need it, I just wanted to make a teenage dream come true. I had other teenage dreams but sadly couldn’t afford Denise Van Outen.

Yeah it was 90s for me too. From 1995 until about 2002. I so wanted that Trinity, but like you said - it was a teenage dream

Scania said:
Ever tried glasses? Edit: genuinely asking (I’m advised you have poor eyesight) an old , late mate of mine was blind in one eye and very very poorly sighted in his other yet recent developments in glasses technology allowed him to read newspapers and the like again.

@SexyGreyFox is right. My contact lens was a -27.5 but is now a -28.5 as of 13.Sep.2021. I think that distance glasses can only go as far as -6? If I take my lens out, I can read newsprint but I would have to hold it at nose distance (about 2cm) from my eye! Plus, I don't have a 2nd eye so I can't mix and match near and corrected vision.

Scania · 29 Sep 2021 at 03:33

Pawnless Endgame said:
@SexyGreyFox is right. My contact lens was a -27.5 but is now a -28.5 as of 13.Sep.2021. I think that distance glasses can only go as far as -6? If I take my lens out, I can read newsprint but I would have to hold it at nose distance (about 2cm) from my eye! Plus, I don't have a 2nd eye so I can't mix and match near and corrected vision.

I personally don't know much about glasses tech etc, but my old mate could read - albeit still with difficulty and indeed holding the page close to his face ,but not that close!

Now knowing your situation, my initial comment was thoughtless, I sincerely apologise.

Participant · 29 Sep 2021 at 05:18

I subscribed to The Times online free trial and you couldn't cancel online, you had to call in and wait on hold for ages.

Dirty tactics. Told me that newspapers are getting desperate.