The New York Times on the Web: All the News Your Local Paper Doesn't Print
By Jonathan Berohn
If you live, like me, somewhere other than major metropolis, you probably find your local paper a bit lacking. My local paper, while quite thorough in its coverage of area festivals and goings-on, just can’t quite get to all the news in its 8 whole pages of national and world news.
Fortunately with all the major newspapers now online, I don’t have to limit my news intake to what the local editors can cram in. Of all the newspapers on the web, the best I’ve found is the trusty old New York Times. To read the Times’ web site, you do have to register, but registration is free, and it does NOT come with the usual spam e-mail attached. Once you have registered, you basically get access to everything the Times prints, with the exception of the crossword puzzles—you have to pay for access to those.
Actually, you get more from the online version than the print version. The Times web site posts article and wire-service updates 24 hours a day, so you don’t have to wait for the next day’s edition to catch up on breaking news. You can also search for and read articles from the past 30 days if you’ve missed something (if you really want old news, you can purchase articles from the Times’ archives back to 1996 for as little as a $1.05 per article).
The best thing about the Times, though, is its breadth. You can get wire service updates anywhere. The Times has book reviews, op-ed columnists, food writers, movie reviews—almost anything you could ever want to know about. I use the Times web site as my first line of research into just about anything. The Times even has forums for readers to discuss articles and topics and share their own views.
