A friend of mine said they were giving up their Washington Post subscription and wanted recommendations for more ethical media to subscribe to. The group text provided a list of suggestions, which I will paste down below if anyone is interested. After I chewed on it further, however, I felt dissatisfied by our answers. None of these smaller media sources are a one-for-one replacement for the experience of reading a website like The New York Times, The Atlantic, or The Washington Post. These major media outlets are more consuming; you can spend all day clicking between breaking news, opinions, book reviews and more. There is no single independent equivalent because no one else has the funds for an entire media empire, especially not if they are also funding real journalism that requires in-depth investigation and fact checking. To get the same experience, you need to have a paradigm shift. You need to move from the idea of a one-stop-shop to a network of sources.

The solution is RSS

This header is a bit tongue in cheek because I say that RSS is the solution to many things. I really mean it this time though! Using an RSS reader allows you to cobble together multiple sources and types of media to give yourself the experience of reading a daily newspaper.

If you are unfamiliar with RSS, it’s a method of aggregating the content of multiple websites into one feed. For that, you need a feed reader. I personally use Readwise, but other popular ones are Feedly and Newsblur. To add a feed to your reader, you can usually just cut and paste the URL into the reader and it will find what it needs to syndicate that page. Some readers also allow you to track twitter accounts, reddit threads, patreon posts, newsletters, and more. Instead of reading your newsletters in your email and bluesky posts in the app and reddit posts on reddit, you can combine all of the things you are tracking into one interface, usually with no ads. This can give you the experience that you get as a subscriber to a larger outlet like the New York Times. You can have your daily dose of puzzles and news and comics all through one app.

Recommended independent media

Here’s the list of independent media outlets that we recommended to our friend.

These folks have been breaking the news that national media then covers:
Marisa Kabas – The Handbasket
ProPublica
Bellingcat – international
Ken Klippenstein

Other independent media
Aftermath – gaming news, for if you miss Kotaku
404media – technology news
Miedastouch
Mother Jones
Democracy Docket
Molly White – Citation Needed – tech world news
Defector – Mostly, but not all, sports. On top of being all around great, has crosswords!
The Flytrap – for if you miss Jezebel
Rewire
19th News – “gender, politics, and policy”
The Philly Inquirer
The 51st – for Washington D.C.
Erin in the Morning – discussion of trans legislation
Labor Notes – labor news
The Texas Observer – $3 a month. This is where the best national reporting about immigration and the border is.
Garbage Day – It’s a newsletter about the Internet which means sometimes it’s vitally important and sometimes it’s about streamer beefs and OnlyFans drama. Since Ryan is so familiar with subcultures like minecraft modders, though, he has been more spot on than other reporters about national news lately because unfortunately our country is run by freaks who spend too much time online.
In These Times – $20 a year for the paper version. News by and for the working class.