It's 2025 and I Just Got a Print Newspaper Subscription
I seem to vaguely recall having a print newspaper subscription in the early years of my marriage (it's our 20th anniversary this summer). I think it was just a Sunday-paper-only subscription mainly for the coupon section. And the comics, of course. But we eventually cancelled our newspaper subscription like most everyone else, because why pay for a clunky print paper when you can just check the news for free via the Internet any time you want? Well, things have changed a lot since then. I've changed a lot. And I've felt for a few years now that I'd rather get my news via good old-fashioned newspaper again for a number of reasons.
Things Have Changed
Internet news was much different 20 years ago. There were ads, but they were not intrusive. If there was any tracking, it was page views and other general stats, not individual user behavior and preferences. And the website layouts were more text-oriented and less image-oriented, so more information was visible without having to scroll or click.
I'll show you an example from from KSL.com, one of Utah's most popular news websites. For the purposes of this comparison, I used Microsoft Edge with the screen maximized on a 1080p monitor. Average maximum resolutions for computer monitors in 2006 were indeed smaller, but I want you to see what it would be like to view a news website built to 2006 standards using modern technology.
Here's how KSL.com looked on June 19th, 2006 (thank you, archive.org!):
I'll zoom in so you can see the content better for this example.
Note the ads, their size, and their placement. In the header at the top I see an ad for a radio show, but it's to the far right of the page. There's a small ad for another radio show below the weather bubble. There is one large graphic ad, but it's to the right of all the important info. There is an “Affiliate Center” section below the graphic ad. And if you look really hard, you can see a “Sponsored Links” section at the bottom of the stock report bubble. The rest of the page is actual news content.
In addition to having a detailed menu at the top, I can see complete headlines of 7 news stories with a small photo or graphic and text blurb for each of them. I see current weather, stock market info, a link to the news site's road traffic page, a “Recipe of the Day” link, and few more links to other stories. All of this without having to scroll.
And due to the reading-friendly layout, you can easily skim the left side of the page and ignore the rest if you want.
Now let's take a look at KSL.com as of March 31st, 2025. I turned off my ad blocker extension for this example.
Immediately, you can't help but notice they have a featured sponsor today. Surely this is what you want to see when you go to a news website, right? Look at how much screen real estate the ad space takes up! HUGE banners on either side of the main content section, and a massive ad that spans the length of the entire content section. The amount of space devoted to ads is as much or more than the amount of space devoted to news, but the news space doesn't even have as much info as its 2006 counterpart.
They still have a menu at the top of the page, albeit with fewer options than in 2006. Less weather info. No stock info. They're not advertising their radio or TV programs, though. It's maybe less cluttered overall? But that means less useful info visible. Of the 5 news stories you can see, all of them have photos and headlines, but only 2 of them have text blurbs.
If you want to see more news, you're going to have to work for it. And that's what they want. The more you scroll, the more ads they can show you and the more money they make.
With an ad blocker the experience is much better, but it still makes you scroll more to see the info.
Granted, this is just one example from one website. Surely some news sites look better or worse in the past or today. But I think this is a good illustration of the trend, in general over the past 20 years. Some news websites today are practically unusable without an ad blocker.
Of course, some websites don't even let you view the content with an ad blocker enabled. You'll get a nasty pop-up message that hides everything and demands that you disable your ad blocker. Sometimes there are ways around this – switching to your web browser's Reader view, for example. But more and more websites are making it impossible to view their content unless they are allowed to serve you ads which track everything you do.
Or they just make you pay them. A number of news websites have resorted to putting their content behind subscription paywalls. Ad blocker or not, you can't view their content unless you pay up. And then they can still attempt to serve ads and track you.
Why Things Changed
The reason I chose to show you an example of a news website from 2006 is because that was before the first iPhone went on the market in 2007. The iPhone changed everything, some things for the better, other things for the worse. As soon as tech and media companies realized how addictive smartphones can be, they intentionally started engineering their products and services to be both “mobile friendly” and to steal as much of your attention as possible. Their intent is to hijack your attention so that you view as many ads as possible and, therefore, purchase as much stuff as possible.
Today's news cycle is 24/7. News websites rotate clickbait headlines throughout the day so that every time you check their site, there's a chance you'll see something “fresh” and new that you didn't last time. Sometimes they show flashy videos to grab attention. That's the same intermittent rewards tactic that makes gambling so addictive. It triggers a dopamine hit in your brain every time you “win” – all the social media, news, game, and media apps make use of this to hook you. Your phone is a slot machine. And now, potentially, so is every internet-connected device.
Done with Doomscrolling
I've noticed that my mental health suffers when I am compulsively checking the news throughout the day. Not only is it addictive, but it seems like the news has become more sensational, darker. Outrage gets views and clicks.
I want to stay informed, but I don't want to be tempted to check the news throughout the day, and I want to protect my mental health. I want to be more intentional about it and check it at certain times under tightly controlled conditions. In my case, I feel I need to stop navigating to news websites altogether and replace that habit with a physical newspaper which is only delivered to me twice a week.
I also plan to make use of RSS to keep up with a handful of specialized news sites and blogs that don't offer print editions and check my RSS reader only during a specified time once or twice a week.
I took advantage of a sweet deal today on a print subscription – $36 for 26 weeks of Deseret News. It includes two newspapers per week, five issues of Deseret Magazine, weekly editions of The Church News (which is news about my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints), and electronic editions of everything (which I do not plan to use unless there is a specific article I want to share with someone).
Aside from the sweet deal, another reason I chose Deseret News is that it falls right in the middle of the political bias scale and solidly within the “More Reliable” range on the Ad Fontes Media Bias Chart. So the idea is that it should provide reliable coverage and balanced perspective.
It's my hope that at the very least, the next 6 months will serve as a “reset” for me when it comes to how I get my news. If I choose to end my print newspaper subscription down the road, I'll make every attempt to be intentional and careful about how I get my news via the Internet after that.
I'm done with doomscrolling.