I began subscribing to The New Yorker in 1973.
I am giving up the print edition and will be reading it on-line now.
The New Yorker is too big, too wonderful, too funny, too informative to hold in my hand. There is so much, and it comes week after week.
I have changed habits. I read things on screens now.
I will miss looking at the clever commentary of covers like this one as I walked from the mailbox to my house.
I will still see the cartoons. They have become more overtly political now than in decades past.
Most of them have an ironic sensibility. My parents never thought New Yorker cartoons were funny. My parents wouldn't think funny this one in the grocery. They did not fuss over the moral provenance of lentil beans, so they would think it strange that a grocery clerk would be giving this earnest option to a customer.)
I don't consider this cartoon about the evolution of the bass as laugh-out-loud funny, but I admire its cleverness for re-interpreting the evolution cliche.
I had no use for the formal silverware and dinner platter service that was stored on high shelves at my parents' home, and I know full well that no one will want the stuff we took from them as a courtesy and then ourselves store on a high shelf. So this cartoon is funny to me:
In decades past The New Yorker got fat in November and December with beautifully photographed ads from Hermes and Ferragamo and Rolex, but that has changed. Now the magazine wants to get paid by subscribers seeking its content, not by advertisers for its upscale audience. I am part of that. My going all-digital is part of the creative destruction of business models for journalism. I happily pay for content. I will never buy a Rolex.
This November 27 edition of The New Yorker had a single luxury ad, one introducing a high-end tourist destination, a city in Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia has money to spend on very-long-term image-building. (We aren't just a petro-state led by a murderer. We are a place of enchantment and beauty.)
My habits changed with the age of my eyes. Now I do my journal-length article-reading by looking at big pages on oversize screens. I like big print.
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4 comments:
I remember having to go to the library and look up subjects in the Readers’ Guide to Periodical Literature, then find the appropriate periodicals in the stacks or on microfilm. I love digital devices for putting libraries at our fingertips. But for general reading pleasure, nothing beats a book.
Digital libraries are so great. Reading at night is light controlled, print size is optional, newspapers without the hassle of used newspapers sitting around, multiple newspapers available if you want to pay and many optional for a few reads. I used to think if I became poor one of the last things I would give up was newspapers, but technology changed everything. In the year 1910 horses were essential, but by 1930 horses were of little value. One used to marry the girl on the nearby farm, but now one can marry the girl from across the ocean if you care to trust the internet. My car has 113,000 miles on it and I think 200,000 miles will be when I start to think of a replacement. My final tidbit of change is my toothbrushes that go up and down without me doing the work. A lot of change is for the better after one gets over the resistance of thinking how it was before was good enough.
I'm very thankful for search engines, and the media I am able to read without having a newsletter, newspaper, magazine, or book in my hands. I'm even more thankful that I usually have a choice for any of those mediums.
I only get one local newspaper delivered to my home. That's because the publisher refuses to place all content online. I've even spoken to the management team about this, and a video of me making my case was presented to the editorial board. So far, only a small sample of the newspaper content is available online. I did indicate I was will to pay.
I pay for many digital publications; way more than I am even able to read each day. Why? news and entertainment do cost. If everyone expected it to be free, there would be little incentive to produce the material. Sure, there is advertising that makes some of this media "free", but then the reader becomes the product that the medium uses to sell to others.
My preference is to have a replica edition for newspapers, magazines, and books as that is what I am used to. More than happy to have both that as well as enhanced versions that I can adapt to my reading device and environment.
What is frustrating is my first example, when less is available online.
Google's search box is my very good friend, and I learned how to modify those search terms to better deliver what I am looking for.
PS Some may wonder why I use M2inFLA as my ID. I'm just another Mike. For most of my career, my initials were M2 or the written M-Squared that Blogger won't let me type. There are a lot of readers and commenters named Mike, so my ID eliminates confusion. Searching for M2inFLA or M2inOR will reveal my true identity for those who are curious.
I predate your subscription devotion to 1966, initially a graduation gift carried to this day. I fretted over the various periodic editorial decisions to focus on aspects of society unrelated to.my life experience. I carried copies in my crewbag into ICBM command centers, in grad school book bags,as backpacks had not become du rigeur. They were stuffed into chart bags for over 4 decades and continue to stack up around our busy retirement household.
My fear of THE NEW YORKER becoming irrelevant gas been more than assuage by its being a standard bearer of rational political reporting, all be it with obvious compatible views.
I'll buck up my reading spectacles and continue subscribing to the print and online editions of The New Yorker for myself and my children and hopefully grandchildren should we still co-occupy the planet when they reach an age of reason and appreciation for the delights of visual and tactile reading.
My 1966 21 jewel SWISS INCABLOCK watch keeps up with most Rolexes I have seen. Plus or minus a second or two.
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