<story><title>Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve be a pretty avid reader of the Economist for a number of years. It doesn&amp;#x27;t align exactly with my political values but I&amp;#x27;ve always found the writing to be of high quality, even if I don&amp;#x27;t agree with their opinions per-se. I feel like it has a good selection of articles on local and geo-politics, culture, technology, and of course finance&amp;#x2F;economics. In the last year, I&amp;#x27;ve found the quality of it to have plummeted. I&amp;#x27;m not sure whether it&amp;#x27;s a changing of the guard and the new generation of journalists doesn&amp;#x27;t mesh with my sensibilities anymore, or perhaps my radar for spotting narrative manipulation and tabloid click-bait has grown more pronounced with all the journalistic malpractice in recent years. Either way, I&amp;#x27;ve not found myself enjoying it as much as I used.&lt;p&gt;As such, I&amp;#x27;m debating on an alternative that fills the niche it has beside my morning coffee. My question to you all is, does anyone have favorite of theirs that is comparable in quality, breadth, and is available in print not just digital? Preferably something with a UK&amp;#x2F;Euro&amp;#x2F;Global focus, not just US. Anything that keeps me relatively well informed, while sparking some intellectual curiosity, and teaching me something I didn&amp;#x27;t already know.&lt;p&gt;So far the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, the Jacobin, le Monde Diplomatique, and the New Statesman are all in the running, so I&amp;#x27;d like opinions from readers of those and how it compares. Tech-first magazines are also interesting to me, but I&amp;#x27;d like at least some political news scattered within if possible.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it&amp;#x27;s declined in quality.&lt;p&gt;And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don&amp;#x27;t see it at all.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it&amp;#x27;s always been. Sometimes I think the way it characterizes something is missing part of the full picture, but it&amp;#x27;s always been that way. Journalists are fallible humans, they aren&amp;#x27;t gods, and it&amp;#x27;s not like there was some mythical past where they always got things right.&lt;p&gt;I can totally understand people not enjoying it as much as they grow older, simply because you come to mistrust journalism more in general, or shift in your ideological viewpoint so it becomes less agreeable. Readers change.&lt;p&gt;But I&amp;#x27;m getting tired of this trope that it&amp;#x27;s the Economist that&amp;#x27;s been changing, that&amp;#x27;s been getting worse. It just doesn&amp;#x27;t make any sense. It&amp;#x27;s the same journalism it&amp;#x27;s always been. For every article you take issue with, I&amp;#x27;m sure you&amp;#x27;d find just as many from 20 or 30 years ago.&lt;p&gt;I suppose it&amp;#x27;s just part of a general narrative of declinism, how everything used to be so much better and the world is crumbling. But in this case, I just don&amp;#x27;t see it. You might not like the magazine anymore and that&amp;#x27;s fine, but I think there&amp;#x27;s a good chance it&amp;#x27;s you who has changed, not the magazine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>davidhyde</author><text>I agree that The Economist has not been declining. I believe that what is really happening is that, at some point, a reader will eventually come across an article where they are particularly knowledgable about the subject matter. To their horror, they proceed to read an article that is “fraudulent by omission”. The cherry picked facts (which are correct) are chosen to fit a narrative. Every article read after this is mired by scepticism and therefor the perceived decline of the publication. This is what happened to me back in 2015 and try as I might, I just couldn’t get back into reading that magazine. I really miss those ignorant days of blissful intellectual smugness though.&lt;p&gt;It’s like watching a movie where you only ever see the good side of the hero. Viewers do not want you to change their mind half way through or cause them to be confused by the muddy reality of things.</text></comment>
<story><title>Ask HN: Alternatives to The Economist?</title><text>I&amp;#x27;ve be a pretty avid reader of the Economist for a number of years. It doesn&amp;#x27;t align exactly with my political values but I&amp;#x27;ve always found the writing to be of high quality, even if I don&amp;#x27;t agree with their opinions per-se. I feel like it has a good selection of articles on local and geo-politics, culture, technology, and of course finance&amp;#x2F;economics. In the last year, I&amp;#x27;ve found the quality of it to have plummeted. I&amp;#x27;m not sure whether it&amp;#x27;s a changing of the guard and the new generation of journalists doesn&amp;#x27;t mesh with my sensibilities anymore, or perhaps my radar for spotting narrative manipulation and tabloid click-bait has grown more pronounced with all the journalistic malpractice in recent years. Either way, I&amp;#x27;ve not found myself enjoying it as much as I used.&lt;p&gt;As such, I&amp;#x27;m debating on an alternative that fills the niche it has beside my morning coffee. My question to you all is, does anyone have favorite of theirs that is comparable in quality, breadth, and is available in print not just digital? Preferably something with a UK&amp;#x2F;Euro&amp;#x2F;Global focus, not just US. Anything that keeps me relatively well informed, while sparking some intellectual curiosity, and teaching me something I didn&amp;#x27;t already know.&lt;p&gt;So far the Financial Times, Foreign Affairs, the Jacobin, le Monde Diplomatique, and the New Statesman are all in the running, so I&amp;#x27;d like opinions from readers of those and how it compares. Tech-first magazines are also interesting to me, but I&amp;#x27;d like at least some political news scattered within if possible.</text></story><parent_chain><item><author>crazygringo</author><text>I see this claim in nearly every HN thread about the Economist -- that it&amp;#x27;s declined in quality.&lt;p&gt;And it baffles me because, having read it for 20+ years and gone back for research to read plenty of articles from further back... I just don&amp;#x27;t see it at all.&lt;p&gt;It&amp;#x27;s the same market-based, socially progressive, pragmatic international strongly opinionated journalism it&amp;#x27;s always been. Sometimes I think the way it characterizes something is missing part of the full picture, but it&amp;#x27;s always been that way. Journalists are fallible humans, they aren&amp;#x27;t gods, and it&amp;#x27;s not like there was some mythical past where they always got things right.&lt;p&gt;I can totally understand people not enjoying it as much as they grow older, simply because you come to mistrust journalism more in general, or shift in your ideological viewpoint so it becomes less agreeable. Readers change.&lt;p&gt;But I&amp;#x27;m getting tired of this trope that it&amp;#x27;s the Economist that&amp;#x27;s been changing, that&amp;#x27;s been getting worse. It just doesn&amp;#x27;t make any sense. It&amp;#x27;s the same journalism it&amp;#x27;s always been. For every article you take issue with, I&amp;#x27;m sure you&amp;#x27;d find just as many from 20 or 30 years ago.&lt;p&gt;I suppose it&amp;#x27;s just part of a general narrative of declinism, how everything used to be so much better and the world is crumbling. But in this case, I just don&amp;#x27;t see it. You might not like the magazine anymore and that&amp;#x27;s fine, but I think there&amp;#x27;s a good chance it&amp;#x27;s you who has changed, not the magazine.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>jwr</author><text>Same here — I don&amp;#x27;t see a decline in quality of the articles. I am annoyed (and refuse to use) their new phone app, which runs animated ads in articles, so that part is going downhill like everything else in the ad world. But the journalism seems to be good.&lt;p&gt;I carefully read articles about my country to check for inaccuracies, and sometimes ask people from other countries about other articles. The result of these checks is always the same: the journalism is solid, facts are presented well, the articles are always slightly condescending and overuse the word &amp;quot;should&amp;quot;. If the &amp;quot;shouldism&amp;quot; annoys you, you can always easily skip these parts.&lt;p&gt;I continue to subscribe, because it&amp;#x27;s pretty much the only thing out there.</text></comment>