u/Own_Relationship5047

Chamath crowded at last week’s podcast was number three in the country. In the meantime

“ According to polling by the Wall Street Journal, a staggering 63 percent of adults in the US now support a pause on AI. A full 57 percent say the US government should regulate AI “immediately,” while a rock bottom 12 percent said they trusted AI companies to “take the lead” and regulate themselves."

coincidence?

I have not paid attention to the fact that NOTUS was building up a strong metro Washington reporting function, including taking capital Weather gang, and adding some of the better columnists who left the Washington Post in its current pathetic incarnation. They just announced their rebranding as the Washington Sun, which alerted me to all of this good news. I just subscribed for $50 a year, about the same as the Post cost me before I cancelled. Good to see a paper that cares about local readership, and has seen a business opportunity in the absurdity of the new Jeff Bezos Post.

What’s their game plan? The quality of reporting is markedly lower than previously and their editorial staff seem to be a bunch of mediocre twenty somethings cultured in a right wing donor petridish. It’s not clear who their readership is. It’s not their traditional audience of readers in the DMV area. It's not official Washington. Even Sally Quinn is writing in the NYT in order to be read. If you go to the hundreds of comments in the editorials virtually nobody agrees with them. It’s almost amusing. They’ve laid off gifted reporters, decimated sports, international and local news, let go their most trusted and erudite opinion writers and even gotten rid of the Capital Weather Gang. They’ve replaced them with people whose editorial choices are …huh? Their latest editorial (while Washington stays indoors due to a smoky climate filled haze) criticizes Europe for not using air conditioners. Really? Exactly who is the audience for that? The Washington Post was a core part of the fourth estate, and we all have an interest in it surviving. I used to read it first before others and considered it entertaining and indispensable. There’s still great reporting but it’s way sparser and consequential than other papers of recited. Now I read NYT, WSJ, FT for need and only every few days the Post, in good part for sport — to see what new absurdity the editorial page is spouting. Doesn’t it seem as if it’s being run into the ground by alienating its once loyal readership in the DC area and becoming irrelevant for everyone else? Pretty soon they’ll go the way of the Washington Times, which still publishes but as far as I can tell has only the narrowest of readership and cannot possiby be self sustaining. I get that he wants more conservative voices – – and the post actually used to be the most eclectic opinion page of the large national papers. But with the current crop, I can only surmise that the pay must be much lower than their competitors. Bezos is well on his way to becoming the Sun Myong Moon of twenty first century publishing.

Fordham will cost about twice as much. Both are urban though NYC a lot more expensive. Have the college savings but Fordham will deplete with nothing left for grad school. Is the reputation and college experience worth it?