Through many ups and downs -- wait... actually it’s pretty much all been downs -- I have maintained a subscription to the Santa Cruz Sentinel. That ended today.
The last straw was the latest rate increase. I had been paying more than 30 bucks per four weeks. The increase would have brought it to about 35. It’s kind of mind-boggling to think that they would ask $1.25 per day for day old news and a bunch of ads. On the other hand, I guess I shouldn’t find it mind-boggling that the hedge fund that owns the Sentinel is trying to milk us for every penny they can get before they fold up the Sentinel completely. (Now that they are down to something like two news reporters, it seems the end must be near.)
Here’s what I won’t miss:
-The rants and pontifications of two old white guy columnists that have become so predictable I only read the first three sentences before I’m sick of them. Hell, if want to read crap like that by an old white guy, I can read my own blog for free. (Gratuitous hint to Sentinel team: diversity is a good thing and it exists in your community.)
-The lack of timely local news coverage. With the 3 pm news reporting deadline, I have to wait a day and a half to find out what happened at the city council meeting or the Warriors game. The Sentinel has become an oldspaper.
-Letters to the editor, which is most often a mashup of misinformation, disinformation and scorn from local partisans trying to score points for their team. I can get this kind of junk almost anywhere online so I’m not going to pay for it – and I won’t have to start my morning with it.
- Actually there a lots of other things wrong with the cheapo Sentinel these days... but Sentinel readers already know all of these and non-readers probably don’t care. So I’ll move on.
I will miss a couple of things:
-There are three comics I enjoy regularly... but I found out that most are free online. (https://www.gocomics.com/ )
-Jessica York has done some good work covering homelessness issues and I wish I could support her work without paying the greedy hedge fund ownership group. My apologies, Jessica, but I can’t do it any more.
Here’s the good news in all of this: there is a new local news reporting source: Santa Cruz Local. The former editor of the Sentinel, Kara Guzman, is the principal reporter and she is doing a nice job covering the city council and some other local issues. If you’re sick of the Sentinel, too, check out Santa Cruz Local.
In case you missed it... here’s a different post about how to truly solve the Sentinel problem.