I first seriously read the AFR around 1996 as I was doing 2U Economics for the HSC. It was educational at the time but as it is a fairly expensive paper I didn't keep up the habit.
In 2001 when I began gambling in the stockmarket I subscribed to the AFR as it seemed to have some useful tidbits. After about 6 months I grew bored of it and unsubscribed as I found the same stories were reworded day to day. It also greatly annoyed me that their website was so unbelievably shit, and that you could not buy a digital subscription unless you were living outside of Australia - yes, seriously.
In August 2007 with the sub-prime crash happening I was again interested in "keeping up" with the financial press so I again subscribed to the AFR. It cost $66/month but I found it an entertaining read on the bus & ferry into work each morning. However, as before, after a few months I realised that the same boring topics were rehashed daily and aside from the 2 or 3 features there's almost nothing of value in the paper. When they sent a letter informing me of a price increase to $75/month effective July I figured it was the right time to cancel, again. Afterall, it made no sense to pay for a lump of paper to be delivered to me door each day which I flicked through for 30 minutes each morning. A lump of paper which is frequently soaked by our recent inclement weather.
Add to that the ridiculous "website" that is AFR online. I struggle to keep up with whatever they're naming their online presence each week - AFR access or some shit. And truly, it is shit. They go out of their way to play stupid games to make it difficult for you to cut & paste content - hell, no one would ever want to copy a short blurb to send to their friends - who might even be inclined to come to your lame site to read the full story.
I began thinking of alternatives. I wondered how, in 2008 could a staid publication like the AFR still be the standard for financial news. I searched, and I found a much better alternative. Business Spectator. Instead of paying Fairfax $75/month, I now pay Virgin Broadband $40/month for 3G wireless access. I plug my notebook in and during my bus & ferry ride I check the news on Business Spectator as well as my thousand and one RSS feeds. Yes, I'm paying less and I'm able to access more. Win all around.
It seems evident to me that the AFR is a complete waste of money. You have to wonder why its $75/month when they giant full page ads throughout the paper, and you can get much of the same content elsewhere online, for free. AFR is fail.
