Archives for September 6th, 2007

The New York Times once led the world with its giant-negro-attack coverage. [source]

I recently got an e-mail announcing that I could get same-day delivery of almost any newspaper in the world right on my doorstep. Starting this week, Newspaper Direct began offering more than 400 papers from 60 countries — including a bunch I’d like to have, like the Times. The only problem: It’s expensive as balls. In New York, a year’s subscription of the Times costs just under €200. Here I’d have to pay €1,461. That’s 700% more expensive. And keep in mind that even if it’s same-day delivery, it’s still yesterday’s news. Thanks to my glorious broadband connection, I can read the latest stuff on their website. And it’s free. As plenty of people have noted, print subscriptions just don’t make much sense anymore.

That said, I still love the idea and I would be seriously tempted to get the Sunday New York Times if they had it. But they don’t. I’ve never much liked reading papers on my monitor. It was so much nicer curling up in bed with the Gray Lady; letting my fingers gently move through her many fleshy sections and folds. (The Sunday Edition, if you’ve never seen it, is massive — today it might be better called BBW.)

Yes, I do miss that. I also love the promise of same-day delivery. I have numerous subscriptions to American magazines — and I’ll tell you, the delivery is atrocious. You’d think that the European Union could manage regular, reliable delivery down its many well-traveled arteries. But it can’t.

So I’m really looking forward to the day when I get this e-mail in my inbox: “Tired of getting The New Yorker a month late? Or having them delivered in non-sequential order? We can help!”

But so far that e-mail is firmly in the realm of science fiction.