Short answer? No.
Let me clarify, I am talking about a subscription to the physical magazine. As a lover of all things wordy, and knowing that some amazing poetry and fiction is published in The New Yorker, I decided to try it out, even though I do get those three free articles a month just for being me, haha. JK, everyone gets that. Anyway, I wanted to support some authors and hopefully find a few new favorites but that was not the case.
The magazine came with a forced subscription to Vanity Fair which I did not appreciate. True, it wasn’t expensive but I don’t read it and it is a waste of paper and resources that just bugs me. And that means the emails for Vanity Fair as well. And it takes a while for them to stop coming even after you unsubscribe.
Secondly, the physical copy of The New Yorker barely has any creative writing in it! How dare they! Excuse my rant but I have read earlier copies and they included much more creative writing than the copies I have received. I don’t know if the creative aspect of the magazine has been streamlined to their online presence but out of the multitude of magazines I’ve gotten so far, I can count the inclusions of creative writing on one hand. Sure, there are some cool articles included but that wasn’t what I was hoping for or expecting from the purchase.
An online subscription includes the articles and stories of the paper magazine and many more. Of course, you get better benefits if you get their iOS only app but since I don’t own a single Apple product, that wasn’t an option for me, sadly. So, all I can do is search through their website for fiction and poetry and creative nonfiction and hope to strike gold. Of course, current events are important but The New Yorker used to have a perfect balance of polished articles and articulate creativity and I do not see that any longer.
Don’t get me wrong, I believe that The New Yorker has amazing information that is valuable and a great way to shift paradigms but is the physical copy worth it? Probably not.
So, in all that I say this, go for the online subscription if you subscribe at all. But then again, that’s just my opinion. Any subscribers out there? If so, tell me what you think in the comments.
Happy reading!
Chyina