Adios, N&O

I'm ending my subscription for the dumbest reason.

Update: About 3pm yesterday afternoon, I got a call from a McClatchy representative. She was more senior than just customer support. I’m not sure if this blog got their attention or my tweet announcing I was dropping my subscription, but they clearly wanted to resolve the problems I was having with their site.

We talked for a while about what was happening and she acknowledged that the problem was broader than just me and my computer. I agreed to talk to a technician and spent time walking through what was happening when I attempted to login. After about 25 or 20 minutes, they identified an ad blocker that was interfering with their platform. Apparently, they had been trying to find the problem for a while and the woman was very excited. She assured me that they could fix the issue now that they had identified it. The customer service executive offered me two months free access. I also learned that I now have full access to all 27 McClatchy newspapers, offering local coverage from cities around the country. I’ll take it and give them one more chance.

Today’s rant is personal. I’m dropping my News & Observer subscription. I’ve had one almost continuously since the mid 1980s. I’m not dropping it because the coverage is too biased or because some article has made me mad. I’m dropping it because I can’t read any articles to make me mad. I can’t access the site at all, despite paying about $40 per month to do so.

I have spent a lot of time on the phone with customer support. Their best solution is to empty the cache. When I do that, the site works—for a day or so. However, when I do that, I’m logged out of every website that I use regularly. I spend time tracking down phone numbers or waiting for texts to verify my credentials.

I had similar problems a few years ago. I almost dropped my subscription then. My brother dropped his for the same reason. Eventually, the problems resolved themselves. Maybe they will again.

I subscribe a lot of traditional media sites, including the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, and The Atlantic. At times, I’ve subscribed to more. I also subscribe to several online outlets like The Bulwark and Air Mail, in addition to a bunch of newsletters. I’ve never had problems similar to the ones I’ve had with McClatchy-owned sites.

Given the problems that traditional media is facing, it’s baffling that they would have a problem that keeps their subscribers from reading their content. Their solution, erasing the cache, is so inconvenient that it’s not really worth the effort. Hence, my decision to leave.

I’m still subscribed to the N&O because I think they provide valuable content that’s hard to find elsewhere. That said, it’s not impossible to find. It just takes more work. WRAL now provides great political coverage. I can get good information from Newsline and even Carolina Journal. Cardinal & Pine is doing great work. WUNC often offers good insight. The Assembly is offering longer form and investigative journalism that’s useful. And Axios Raleigh gives a brief overview of the most pertinent news of the day.

Still, the N&O has been my go-to site to get most content with the deepest coverage on a single site. It’s not perfect, but it’s not fake news, either. Republicans hate it mostly because they are in power. They were fine when News & Observer reporters were scrutinizing Jim Black, Mike Easley, and Meg Scott Phipps. Now, they dismiss it because N&O reporters are shining a light on the GOP’s wayward policies and legislative hijinks.

I’ll miss the N&O, but they are acting like they are still the 800 pound gorilla of political journalism in the state and they are not. They can’t operate with a site as poorly designed as the one they have and expect to survive for long. I’m not willing to trade off easy access to the dozens of other sites I use just to consume their content. I’ll shift the money I gave to McClatchy to newsletters written by journalists trying to survive in the new environment of decentralize news.

I understand that journalism is struggling in the age of the internet. The gatekeepers are now competing with the upstarts. Journalists are now freelancing because the corporate media jobs are disappearing. Some of the best writing is coming from people on Substack or other platforms. I’ll support them instead of talking to customer service workers who offer me cumbersome work arounds instead of solutions. So, adios N&O. It’s been a great 40 years but it’s time to move on.