This is good. Thank you.

I’m going to make a counterintuitive argument that the best way to inform yourself in the current environment is to dedicate time to reading a hard copy newspaper.

I do that, and I read many online sources of news every day. I don’t watch TV, but I listen to news on the radio if I’m in a car.

I’ll keep this short, but there are three main reasons I argue that reading hard copy is the best way to be well-informed:

1. By choosing a hard copy, you are dedicating yourself to the pursuit of information. You have blocked out X time to do it, and you are committing to “news acquisition” as an end in itself, not a peripheral activity. You will not be interrupted with notifications or otherwise be tempted to check other options. On-line, it’s hard to stick to your decision to inform yourself.
2. As others have noted, no slideshows or video. You are forced into reading comprehension and, thus, further immersion.
3. The amount you contend with is finite. You are not led into click after click on related or unrelated themes (you can always search them later). You have X amount of info in front of you to read, skip, skim, or save for later in one place. I actually clip articles out of newspapers and the Economist and read them to my kids at dinner. Just one or two a week. I send them links all the time; they don’t click on them because they have too many other options.

Again, I pursue lots of on-line news (like Medium) to supplement my daily hard copy. But my foundation is investment in reading my newspaper. And it works.