What print publications do you subscribe to?

Let’s have a little straw poll: What print publications do you subscribe to?

I’ll go first. National Geographic is the only print publication I subscribe to. I let my Economist subscription lapse because it’s pretty expensive, but I’m thinking of renewing it now that I have settled into a new place for the next year (I’ve lived in three different places in the last year).

Neither publication is a good source for up-to-the-minute news coverage. Both, however, excel at analysis pieces.

National Geographic has some fantastic long-form journalism. It’s the kind of writing that I do not like reading on a computer screen. I regularly click out of articles I find on the Web that are too long.

I have Web ADD like many computer users. I like to read journalism that understands that the Web is a fast and immediate medium. And if your story takes to long to get to the point, I’ll quickly find something else to occupy my time.

The Economist is firmly focused on news analysis, and that’s how I like my print publications. I have Google Reader and the Web in general to keep me up to date on the latest news, but The Economist is a great resource to get through the static of the Web, and provide me with a long-term look on news and world affairs.

So, what if anything do you still subscribe to and why? And if you’re daring, leave your age.

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  • http://kimgregson.com Kim Gregson

    I subscribe to Wired, Budget Travel, Game Developer magazine, and some videogame user magazines. The game ones I keep for reference, I like the photos in the travel magazine, and i’ve been getting Wired for years out of habit I guess. I get media week and brandweek for work. Paper mags are good for reading while walking across campus or in the car.

  • http://kiyoshimartinez.com/ Kiyoshi Martinez

    I keep telling myself I should subscribe to WIRED magazine, but keep not getting around to it. It probably doesn’t help I keep changing addresses every 12 months or so. Although, I see myself here for at least another year plus, so maybe I’ll do that. I like WIRED for its design, although the entire magazine’s articles are online for free. Also, I’m in the minority probably, I like the advertisements. I always thought a lot of them were cool.

    I don’t get any newspapers, as I get both major metros (Chicago Tribune and Sun-Times) each day at work for me to browse if I chose to. Even then, I don’t really read either paper’s sites more than once a day for state political news.

    What I do read daily as a paper, however, is the Wall Street Journal, also provided for free at work. I feel like I get really quality writing with the WSJ, and Murdoch’s semi-effective paywall keeps me from browsing the site at all.

    I’m considering picking up some more magazine subscriptions now that I’m taking the train to work. National Geographic and the Economist sounds cool, but maybe too dense for morning reading. I may look at something like Good or Make magazine.

  • http://www.nemejo.com G Love

    The New Yorker…pairing it with an iPod keeps me sane during a 45 minute bus-commute to work.

    In case this is ever used in court, I should also mention there is a Maxim that arrives at my house with my name on it. A prank from my wife.

  • http://netzoo.net Andy

    The New Yorker is still my favorite thing in print.

    Though not a subscriber, per se, The Onion is far more enjoyable in it’s print version than online.

    I also receive the following in print: The Atlantic (won’t renew now that online archives are free), Reason, Believer, and Good.

  • http://graphicdesignr.net/ Erica Smith

    Print subscriptions: 1
    Age: 31

    I used to subscribe to several magazines — Wired, Fast Company, Domino, Real Simple, National Geographic and Print, off the top of my head (although I know there were a few more).

    National Geographic was the first to go because the subscription ran out as I was moving, and just never renewed it. They usually stacked up unread anyway. In fact, when I moved I threw out (recycled) several boxes of magazines. Print was the last subscription to run out, and the one I’m most like to subscribe to again. Maybe. The others are all online, all delivered via Web feeds.

    I don’t subscribe to the local paper either. Yeah, the one I work for. Two reasons: I can pick up a copy as I get off the elevator; I can get it online.

    That one subscription: Design, SND’s magazine that comes as long as you pay your dues. And if they would put it online (but not as a PDF like their newsletter is), I’d opt to not have it mailed either.

  • http://www.ryansholin.com Ryan Sholin

    Print subscriptions: 0
    Age: 31

    Hmm, but I apparently need to spend a few hundred frequent flyer miles or they’ll all disappear, so it looks like maybe the Atlantic Monthly is in my future.

    I think AEJMC still sends me a volume of research papers every month or two, although I don’t believe I renewed my membership.

    Recent print subscriptions that I’ve had for 6 months to a year at a time in the last five years or so: Mother Jones, Adbusters. Sometime before that, I gave up National Geographic, Outside, and Backpacker.

    RSS Feed subscriptions: 264. (Not at all an all-time high.)

  • http://www.nashuatelegraph.com Dave Brooks

    The Economist is the finest news publication around today, bar none. It’s journalism the way we’d all like to do it – in depth, no crap, willing to spend two pages writing about non-trendy topics in order to actually explain them, written with cleverness and attitude but no snideness. I subscribe, although it’s expensive, and so should you.

    The one disturbing thing about it for us reporters is that it prints no bylines … ouch. I wonder if that’s why it’s so well written?

  • http://www.midadopter.com Tim

    New Yorker, Harper’s, Wired. I pick up the economist and other news magazines if flying, and I subscribe to the paper I work for. I used to subscribe to the Sunday NYT, but that was largely for the magazine inside.

    71 RSS subs.

  • http://www.midadopter.com Tim

    Oh, and age: 32.

  • http://patrickbeeson.com Patrick Beeson

    Here is my list:

    Wired (nobody working in the online biz today should be without this magazine)
    Details (hey, it was free)
    Fast Company (awesome)
    Inc. (kinda lame, not renewing)

    I would have the NYTimes Sunday edition on that list if they were able to deliver to my apartment. Funny they can’t do that since they deliver to the grocery store a few blocks down the street. Lame.

  • Wendy

    I subscribe to the AJC (my employer) on the weekends; otherwise it’s magazines: New Yorker, Atlantic, NYRB, Economist. Pick up print edition of Wired on occasion.

    Agree with the point above about the value and insight of the Economist; while I do like some of the online-only features on the website, the magazine is well worth the price. And the time needed to read a good portion of it every week. Go ahead, Pat. Re-up now, before you lose the urge to do so.

  • http://www.lucasjosh.com/blog/ Josh Lucas

    My list:

    Wired (been a subscriber since issue #2)
    Fast Company
    Seed
    and a few obscure journals to support the fiction habit

    I get the LA Times since I get it for free as I work there.

    266 RSS subs.

  • http://blog-o-blog.com Zac Echola

    At the library, but also mostly online:

    Wired
    New Yorker
    Atlantic
    New York Magazine
    NME

    At the library (religiously):

    Fast Company
    Inc
    Harpers
    Seed
    Esquire
    National Geographic
    The Economist
    Foreign Affairs
    And a whole lot more… Basically if it’s on the shelf and I haven’t read it, I will.

    I subscribe to:

    Metro.pop
    Vice
    GQ (Free subscription from a friend, no plans to renew, though I do enjoy reading the long form pieces)

    I occasionally buy on a whim:

    UK Esquire (100x better than the US version)
    UK GQ
    Juxtapoz
    2600

    I sometimes buy in airports (because I refuse to pay 8.95 for an hour of Internet use):

    New York Times
    Washington Post
    USA Today

    Last, but not least:

    When I travel, I make it a point to pick up alternative weeklies and free metro dailies to see what they’re up to.