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Have you stopped buying papers?

(79 Posts)
Cumbrianmale56 Thu 11-Jun-26 13:07:21

I haven't bought a newspaper for over 10 years and only check newspaper websites occasionally. If I want news, I usually get it from news channels or the internet.
I was at a conference yesterday, and a contributor stated that only 22% of people buy a paper now, compared with 67% 30 years ago. He used to work for the Daily Record and said the paper's circulation has fallen by 80% in the last 30 years.
My main reasons for not buying a paper is they're not particularly cheap, with some costing over £ 2 these days, they stick to a very dated Labour vs Conservative outlook, and are too full of articles about things I have no interest in.

Mojack26 Sat 13-Jun-26 14:51:13

Never bought papers anyway so no change there! 🤣

Quizzer Sat 13-Jun-26 14:53:07

I haven’t bought a newspaper for years.
I am shocked by how biased and prejudiced some of the online papers are. If you only read one, either in print or online, you get a very one-sided view of the news.

Frenchgalinspain Sat 13-Jun-26 15:13:26

I read the El Pais Spanish Newspaper over my café every morning ..

I sometimes shall purchase Vogue or Elle Magazine and I read Hola at my hairdresser´s ..

janetsp Sat 13-Jun-26 16:07:53

I am very fortunate to have free access to Pressreader through my local authority library services. This provides online access to an extensive range of newspapers and magazines. If you haven’t already got it, it’s worth checking out.

Romola Sat 13-Jun-26 16:22:29

It's my luxury. I have the i newspaper on subscription and it's delivered Monday to Saturday. The total cost is £10 a week and every now an again I think about giving it up.

gransruleok Sat 13-Jun-26 16:24:20

I just looked for this but it seems you have to subscribe to press reader, is that right?

janetsp Sat 13-Jun-26 16:43:37

For me, it is a free service offered through our local library.

Leavesden Sat 13-Jun-26 16:56:13

Yes too expensive and get less and less pages.

Eddieslass Sat 13-Jun-26 17:10:07

For years we had the local weekly paper and on Sundays the Sunday Times on subscription - it kept us going all week and the Culture Section was very useful, giving all the TV and radio stations. But we stopped them both a couple of years ago about a year ago as were reading less and less of it, so stopped. Now I pay 85p for a weekly TV mag and we read the local paper in our library most weeks.

VANECAM Sat 13-Jun-26 17:24:46

Stopped reading newspapers 9 years ago.
Stopped watching tv news etc about 3-4 years ago.
I read the occasional second hand gardening magazine.
I tried on-line news etc but really can’t be ars d.

TiggyW Sat 13-Jun-26 17:44:03

I read newspapers and magazines online via our local library (BorrowBox).

Nannan2 Sat 13-Jun-26 17:52:33

Stopped years ago.

Cumbrianmale56 Sat 13-Jun-26 18:37:31

It's a sign of how the world has changed, when the local paper used to have an imposing building in town with a printworks attached and now uses a small office in a fitness centre.

BrandyGran Sat 13-Jun-26 19:07:49

Buy the Mail on Sunday which has a You magazine. It has always got very interesting articles on women’s interests . In my opinion much better than pricier mags. I do of course read the paper too- it’s part of our Sunday routine.

JaneJudge Sat 13-Jun-26 19:12:19

i haven't bought one for over a decade
My mum always brings one though if she is visiting

Tessa1234 Sat 13-Jun-26 19:29:16

We read the i online and its concise and pretty fair reporting. It's fairly cheap too.

lovingit Sat 13-Jun-26 20:38:46

I buy the I after my dog walk and spend an hour or so having breakfast and reading the paper and doing the crosswords....retirement is wonderful.

Literarylover Sat 13-Jun-26 22:03:18

I only buy one on a Saturday. Takes me most of the week to read it with all the supplements.

jocork Sat 13-Jun-26 23:29:09

I had a paper delivered where I lived in Oxfordshire but when we moved here 23 years ago there wasn't a delivery available so I stopped buying one every day. The news is all available on TV and online and apart from the crossword I don't miss it. For a while I bought the Saturday edition for the TV supplement but as prices went up I changed to just a TV listings magazine.

DrWatson Sun 14-Jun-26 02:58:52

Well, we'd not heard of 'PressReader', sounds useful, but I'm not sure what "via the library" means. I didn't know I could make a 'virtual visit' to the Library, haven't been in it for years, though they do a good job.

Re paper circulations, I've said on here several times -- when folk talk about the naughty right-wing press -- that reader numbers have dropped like an anchor for 20+ years now.

There's a popular myth that the Press drives political preferences, but in fact the publishers know what their readers want, and try to supply it. Hence the same firm publishes the Mirror and Express, amongst others.

Oh, anyone wanting to TRY a paper that tries to help them a bit might trial the 'i', which provides different opinions about assorted topics (varies by the day), you can assess them and make up your own mind.

Lilyflower Sun 14-Jun-26 06:03:36

My other half used to write for the Times and we used to have a copy daily gratis, when he moved on we had the Times deliver until it got too expensive and we changed to an offer Telegraph which we also had delivered.

The delivery charge grew too much so we picked up our copies until we found that the Telegraph had increased charges monstrously without informing us so we stopped that too.

Now we do a year at a time when an online only subscription offer for oldies is on. We used to love the free copy Waitrose would give you - much better than the free coffee!

So now we read the Mailonline, the Telegraph and the Guardian as we are newsaholics but of limited means. We also have a Spectator subscription which is great value for the quality of the writing, I shall check out the library free scheme that was mentioned here.

We are often quite shocked at the ignorance of the DC who gets her news online from various sources. The other child reads newspapers and is much better informed and more balanced.

Long may the papers continue in a country where free speech is being eroded every day.

Lilyflower Sun 14-Jun-26 06:04:16

Delivered not deliver.

stewaris Sun 14-Jun-26 06:58:13

We buy 2 daily papers and I can't see that stopping as I don't watch TV and not keen on internet news. OH watches news on TV but stil reads daily papers.

Juicylucy Sun 14-Jun-26 09:45:45

Always brought one daily now I read it online.

Estrellita Sun 14-Jun-26 16:50:39

I have never had a newspaper delivered and gave up buying them about 5 or 10 years ago as I hated the bias, particularly in papers like The Daily Mail, but my parents had two papers delivered every day and more at weekends. I have to say that I wouldn’t touch their choice of papers with a bargepole!