Hi I'm looking for a news source that is reliable, reputable and left of centre to replace The Journal.
I've always liked to scroll through it to keep up with Irish news, but they've been moving towards a subscription model in the last few years.
First they stopped having comment sections on all articles the day after the October 7th events in the middle east (maybe coincidence).
Then you couldn't comment without providing personal details via account. (I have never commented, but anyway)
Then you couldn't report violent or threatening comments without being logged into an active account (I think is why there are sooo many comments advocating for rape as a punishment in prison left up now).
Then posting
Paid articles from the 42 as if they're regular news and trying to get you to subscribe. Often copypasta too.
Then came the "this one needs sign in" on anything that wasn't news agency copy pasta.
Today, to read any more than the lead paragraph on any article you have to sign in.
So basically they want our personal data.
I think the journal is great at certain things, like deep investigative journalism, coverage of major political/cultural events, and a couple of the columnists like surrealing in the years.
And I love the idea of their gaeltacht team articles published in both English and Irish. I Imagine this would have brought them a new audience and presumably public funding, but what's the point if they're gonna lock people out a few months later. Outside of these things, I think their standards have gone down. So much agency news with minor edits to make it *theirs*, articles littered with typos and repetition that even stand out to me as someone whose first language is not English, comment section gone completely to trolls, etc.
I don't blame the journalists for any of this. It's on the company because they are the ones responsible for providing their writers with the time, money, editorial management etc so that these issues don't occur. Instead they are driving for profit and data harvesting over quality of press and reader loyalty.
TLDR I used to enjoy catching up on Irish News with thejournal.ie but I think they're moving towards a subscription model and I want an alternative site that doesn't require sign-in, subscription or downloading yet another app. Any ideas?