How to Read the Newspaper for Free in the United States

These days, most people get their news through social media. Well, actually, most people get their news through reading headlines that get shared online with extremely urgent sounding captions guilt-tripping you for not retweeting it, but most people don't actually read the whole article. Because social media is such a fire hose, and it's so easy to internalize the "if you're not talking about this, you're part of the problem" mindset that was once utilized by activists to draw attention to ignored struggles and now is used by everyone for fucking everything, people get sucked into feeling like they must pay attention to second-by-second updates on every single thing happening everywhere in the world or else they're a bad person. As though merely paying attention to the news actually affects the news, inconsequential of any actual actionls

But you don't have to do that! There is a much healthier way to keep up with what's happening in the world and it's called Reading The Newspaper. Now, mainstream US newspapers do tend to carry biases and propaganda so you do need to think critically while reading them about what's being described, and not fall for things like the "exonerative tense." However, reading a few in-depth articles once a day, and then leaving it at that, is far healthier. And most of the time, unless you are second-by-second involved in a particular issue, you do not need to be getting second-by-second updates. Daily is plenty on most days.

But Shel! I don't want to pay for a newspaper subscription!

But reader! If you are American, your public library has likely already subscribed to a digital edition of at least one newspaper!

Odds are, they specifically offer free access to the New York Times, either through scans of the latest paper issues or through an infinite number of free 3-day passes to NYTimes.com. Most libraries, if they can only offer one newspaper, they will choose the New York Times even over their own local paper.

I went through the list of the most heavily populated cities and metropolitan areas in the US and collected direct links to the digital New York Times subscriptions for all of the followig libraries. Click on your city to read the New York Times for free right now with your free library card! Most of these cities allow you to make a free eCard on their website. Many of them, like Boston and Philly, allow anyone in the same state to sign up for a free eCard, not just city residents.

_{Atlanta · Austin · Boston · Charlotte · Chicago · Detroit · Denver · DC · Houston · Indianapolis · LA · NYC · OKC · Philly · Phoenix · PDX · San Antonio · San Diego · SF · San Jose · Seattle · Tampa}

Don't see your city? It's probably because the population was too small for me to have checked your library's website, or because they don't subscribe specifically to the New York Times. However, all of the libraries I checked that didn't carry the New York times did carry free access to another newspaper's digital edition, or to a service like PressReader which provides access to many different newspapers. If you live in a small county which doesn't have either, you should look to see if the largest city in your state's library offers free eCards to state residents.

But Shel, I'm not an American, am I fated to doomscroll forever?

The massive mission creep-ridden public library is a chiefly American institution. Outside of the US, public libraries tend to be much smaller and more focused on books or research. With so many countries in the world, and so many languages I can't read, I obviously can't say if you have a public library which provides this service.

I will say that Vancouver and Toronto both have digital subscriptions to ahem the New York Times!! (Even in Canada!!!) and Manchester, UK does have a subscription to PressReader and some other newspapers. So definitely give your local library a check!

I hope this helps free you from doomscrolling!