What's a good source for online Tucson news? (price, rain)

[Adamson865]

Thanks for that. A second question which came to me is whether the ADS does an adequate job of covering state politics, or if I should be reading the Phoenix paper for that?

[WilmaWildcat]

Originally Posted by rah62

Thanks for that. A second question which came to me is whether the ADS does an adequate job of covering state politics, or if I should be reading the Phoenix paper for that?

Well, I think the ADS does a good job with state politics, especially if it effects southern Arizona; but in fact I also subscribe to the e-version of the Republic. It's pretty handy, because even though the ADS is a Lee Enterprises paper, they have a joint operating agreement with the now defunct (since 2009) Tucson Citizen which is a Gannett property -- and the Republic is a Gannett property. So my Gannett subscriptions are handled on the same customer page and in the same way. The Republic does have a lot of state politics reporting and editorials.

Some archives of the Tucson Citizen are also available at Newspapers.com, and I get that with the basic Newspapers.com subscription. The ADS is a premium subscription, there; but it's still not that much. It's what I do for entertainment instead of movies, etc. Quite a few Arizona newspaper archives are covered at Newspapers.com. They are really fascinating if you're into Arizona history. The Tucson-Pima public libraries may offer Newspapers.com on computer; worth checking. I think they have genealogy resources and may have some newspaper archives, too. The U of A library has some newspaper archives, IIRC. Locals can get a card at the UA library, I think; but that was a while ago so best check. Love the UA libraries.

Here is a list of Arizona newspapers by circulation figures: https://www.agilitypr.com/resources/...y-circulation/

P.S. The Nogales International newspaper is pretty interesting; I check in with them sometimes. They cover Santa Cruz county and border topics. Nogales AZ and Nogales Sonora straddle the border.
http://www.nogalesinternational.com/

Wow, I just noticed at that link that Nogales HS beat Salpointe (Tucson) in boys' baseball: "The win improved Nogales’ record to 11-1 in the regular season. They were ranked No. 1 in the 4A Conference as of Friday..."

[Adamson865]

That was very helpful. I guess I'll just wait until they have some special. The former paper I had on-line access for, they were running a deal for a one-time flat amount for a year's access. I don't let anybody have recurring access into my bank accounts!

[WilmaWildcat]

Originally Posted by rah62

That was very helpful...

Contact them during business hours and see. I feel encouraged that they would like you to subscribe, however you would like to pay. :-) And I would like to think you got what you wanted...

At the bottom of this page, there are email, phone and chat contacts:
https://subscribe.tucson.com/subscri...ource=menu-nav

[WilmaWildcat]

Originally Posted by rah62

That was very helpful...

Btw, we don't give anybody access to our bank accounts either. We got a credit card that gives us points for airline flights and put everything possible on that card. We'd put the mortgage on it if we could. All of our bills go auto-pay on that card. Over the years we've had a number of free flights to Tucson, including first class...

[Adamson865]

Well, after two weeks of reading the ADS, I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that I definitely don't want to subscribe.

Their parent, Lee Enterprises, looks to specialize in small-town papers, with just a few exceptions. I think Tucson is too large for that business model of sparse reporting. Maybe the ADS could be purchased by a larger newspaper organization that could beef up the ADS reporting and bring its editorial position a bit more towards the center of the spectrum.

Also, based on my past reading experience, the ADS website is darned near prehistoric and doesn't even provide for reader comments. That's world wide web circa 1986.

Time to switch to the AZ Republic for a couple weeks.

[WilmaWildcat]

Originally Posted by rah62

Well, after two weeks of reading the ADS...

The Republic does a good job of reporting the governor, state congressionals and legislature; but they do a so-so job on their local community reporting. The ADS does a good job of local reporting, and that appears to be what locals want the most in Tucson. Lee Enterprises is serving the community; they are a better fit than Gannett. The Tucson Citizen was a Gannett newspaper (like the Republic and USA Today), and the Citizen had been the oldest continuously publishing newspaper in Arizona until they went out of business in 2009.

Most news websites no longer have their own comments sections, and that's the same with the ADS. The ADS had comments sections for many years; but by the time when most readers were at Facebook, like nearly everyone else, they took their comments section to Facebook. Readers can comment on their posts there. Having to monitor forums is a thing of the past for most news sites; they were anonymous and acrimonious, and Facebook provides a less anonymous atmosphere. For those remaining news sites that still have comments sections, very few posters frequent them any more, IMO.

[Adamson865]

Sorry, but I see a very sparse local section every day in the ADS. Woefully insufficient for my desires. As for your comment that "most news websites no longer have their own comments sections", this is the first one I've encountered - and having to backtrack to another website (Facebook) to see if they've deigned to allow comments on a particular article is annoying.

[WilmaWildcat]

Originally Posted by rah62

Sorry, but I see...

You appear to not be paying for and reading the actual newspaper but rather reading their public website for free. If you subscribed to the e-newspaper or hard copy and read it every day you would get a good sense of what happening. Judging a newspaper by its free website is not a good idea; they are frustrating to use, which would be a good strategy on their part.

That is why I wind up subscribing to actual newspapers or fascimile e-newspapers. It's hard to find things on their public websites. And it's getting harder. I have been online since 1989 when we beta tested the Mac software for Apple Link Personal Edition, which became America Online. The ADS has been online since at least 1994; they were called StarNet and had an actual internet provider service at the time, which they sold for a profit IIRC eventually when that model went away.

Individual comments sections are a pain in the neck for newspapers to monitor, which have plenty to do already. That is why they are going away; there are few remaining, and the ones that remain are shadows of themselves. Posters prefer Facebook, too. Places like Yahoo or Google news are not newspapers; and if they want to administrate comments sections, they are set up for that from the start. It's their business model to use that data. City newspapers would never get enough traffic to make online advertising or data collection worth their while.

[Adamson865]

You guessed wrong. I bought the actual newspaper each day for two weeks and found it sad, thin and sparse. The local coverage was woefully insufficient for my needs, and the editorial content was slanted too far off to one direction for my taste.

I definitely will not purchase the ADS anymore.