The Guardian - US & World News

I have really enjoyed the Guardian until the past few years. Years ago, it was tolerable to see a few young writers offer up a few novel interpretations of history or culture we never knew about, surrounded by a the wealth of objective apolitical news reporting by professionals your loyal readers could readily consume. But now the vast majority of your news articles are opinion-based, political, or racially charged hit-pieces dismantling some part of western culture your writers utterly despise. It is so bad, I now have to scroll through 90% of the articles just to find a single one about something innocent, like the wildlife in the UK, the world economy, etc. ….some world news event that is apolitical and free of ‘victimhood culture’. Your news now is just editorialized, hyper-charged opinion. Activist hate has spread like wildfire through your news org. Its now so biased and jaded against large cross sections of people, races, ages, religions, or genders there is nothing truly objective left that can see the world of good people as worthy. Your news it seems is just not fit to print without hateful interpretations looking through the dark colored lense of identity politics. I miss the Old Guardian where all people and all news had value as is. Now it is heavily filtered, heavily jaded, and toxic. I just cant listen to the passive agressive rage in so many young writers any longer. I have to say goodbye.

I couldn’t have survived the pandemic without the Guardian by my side. The only minor annoyance is the plea for donations (not too annoying since I LOVE that the weekly mag doesn’t have ads), and the fact that even if you are on a monthly donation plan, the app doesn’t consider this to be equivalent to an online subscription (which, to be fair, it isn’t). So I get most of my reading done via the snail mail paper copy we subscribe to, and just top off at the app. Room for improvement: pls improve the app search algorithm. If I am searching for an article or book review I’ve already read in the hard copy magazine and I know the key words or names, half the time the article won’t let itself be found via the app search engine no matter what I do. Sometimes this can be resolved by googling the article in question, and sometimes not, but either way it’s very frustrating. Still overall, great app, and I’m glad it’s out there making the world a better place!

If I want to vary my reading, I cannot pay over $150 for every news outlet I like. NYT and WAPO both offer annual subscriptions under $40 (if you try to cancel), and I just got a year of the Economist for $100, and I consider them the gold standard. I really like the Guardian, but I can’t justify paying 50% more than what I pay for the Economist. How does my price complaining relate to the app? Well, the app generously lets you read for free, but constantly reminds you that you are reading free. Every single article comes with an overlay telling you how many articles you have read at their expense. I should also mention, the price I am willing to pay for a news journal is directly proportional to their self-restraint in expressing political bias. Thats why I would happily pay 3x more for the Economist over NYT and WAPO. Economist is up front about it’s views but writing style makes a clear distinction between those views and their facts. NYT and WAPO get some great scoops but the degree of bias is at times almost sickening. Guardian does a lot better job than those two, but not so good that I would pay the premium I am willing to pay for pure unpolluted news.

The Guardian is a refuge for many of us Americans. It is a comfort to read actual news and the mobile app functions brilliantly with a layout that looks great and is easy to navigate. But why, oh why did you feel compelled to change your logo? Why? That’s all I can ask. It’s one thing to update a look - see the extraordinary job Slate just did. You should read the hows and whys of Slate’s completion of the update. It took place over a L O N G period of time but everything about it was, indeed, an improvement. It’s another thing to change your brand. What you had was a logo that was iconic. If you wanted to color it black, fine, but what you did was replace an icon (in the true sense of the word) with an ugly ‘update’ that looks cluttered and very much like an elementary school class project did it. Did you pay someone for this sad scribble or, perhaps, the big boss has a grandson (no granddaughter would ever create something so uninspired and forgettable) who is dabbling in graphic… well, one hates to call it design, but there it is. Just go back. Do it quickly while it’s not so painful. Make it black if you must and I promise we will never mention it again. I would loved to have given you five stars but not with this very badly managed process of ‘design.’ It does not bode well for the future of other, truly vital aspects of your magazine. When management starts screwing around with solid components of a whole, it’s usually not long before there is nothing solid left.