Jump to content

Best Newspapers/Magazines for a value investor


BRK IN MKE

Recommended Posts

I am sure this topic has probably been discussed before, but what Newspapers or magazines is on everyone's must read list.

 

Currently, I get WSJ, Economist, and Businessweek.

 

I am thinking about subscribing to Investor's Business Daily, Harvard Business Review, and Barrons. I have not yet pulled the trigger on those subscriptions, but I figured I would poll members of the message board to see what everyone's "must read" publication(s) is/are before I sign up.

 

*For me the one that I glean the most wisdom from is the Economist. That is a subscription that I plan to carry for a long time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Used to get the WSJ, dumped it, haven't missed it.

 

Get Barrons, it's hit or miss.  Some weeks are great and I read most articles, other weeks are a total miss and I read about 25%.  I hate some of their ideas "Company XYZ is selling at $21, analysts see it moving to $23 over the next year."

 

I get Businessweek, similar to Barrons, sometimes really interesting, other times a miss.  Usually very good offbeat stories.  Nothing really actionable but very good business news.

 

I get SmartMoney, was offered 3 years for $10 or something when I signed up for Barrons.  Surprisingly good, I've found a few articles in there I've actually cut out and saved.

 

Used to get Forbes, don't waste your time.

 

Read Fortune at the office sometimes, seems like the ad to article ratio is a bit high.  So high in fact that I have trouble finding articles in there.

 

I read the FT whenever I'm at the airport since it's easy to pick up a copy.  I'd love to subscribe but it's pricy.

 

I signed up for the Economist recently, should start getting it soon.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I am sure this topic has probably been discussed before, but what Newspapers or magazines is on everyone's must read list.

 

Currently, I get WSJ, Economist, and Businessweek.

 

I am thinking about subscribing to Investor's Business Daily, Harvard Business Review, and Barrons. I have not yet pulled the trigger on those subscriptions, but I figured I would poll members of the message board to see what everyone's "must read" publication(s) is/are before I sign up.

 

*For me the one that I glean the most wisdom from is the Economist. That is a subscription that I plan to carry for a long time.

 

If you just want to get educated, then all those things you mentioned above is OK in my opinion. But for successful investing, there is really no need to read any of them. Even today I regretted for paying 59/year for WSJ. One thing I recommend is the Financial Times. I can be easily absorbed into this paper for more than half an hour a day.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

An interesting side topic is the willingness of people to pay for good content. I picked up Financial Times every day last year from my school. And right after they cancelled the subscription, I missed it a lot. The subscription costs 350e or around 470 USD in Finland, but after thinking about it, I am going to subscribe. I paid 79/year for WSJ and got 20 Amazon gift card in rebate. However, even at this price, this is a totally or near totally waste of money. The newspaper, in my opinion, has failed in capturing what is happening around the world if you compare it to Financial Times.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I subscribe to the WSJ and actually like it (with a few caveats).

 

I think the WSJ and FT try to accomplish different goals. I like to follow a lot of event driven investments and find the WSJ is great for covering these kids of things / has articles which give color on what's likely to be a future event driven scenario. Pretty much the only section I read in the WSJ is the business section. I don't read the Op-Ed, World News, or anything else.

 

I find the FT to be better at giving a daily global perspective on what's going on with economics. It's good and high quality reporting, but I don't bother reading or subscribing to it because I don't view it as adding enough incrementally to my investing. I'd rather subscribe to the WSJ and then use the Economist and other random sources to get that global macro perspective.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have decided to cancel the Economist after reading it for 15 years. They seem to have lost their editorial independence. I am looking for a replacement without any success so far. I have always admired the quality of the writing. I pick up the FT from time to time and there is always something of interest you might not see elsewhere.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have decided to cancel the Economist after reading it for 15 years. They seem to have lost their editorial independence. I am looking for a replacement without any success so far. I have always admired the quality of the writing. I pick up the FT from time to time and there is always something of interest you might not see elsewhere.

 

I thought I was the only one finding this. I stopped reading the Economist a few months ago.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have decided to cancel the Economist after reading it for 15 years. They seem to have lost their editorial independence. I am looking for a replacement without any success so far. I have always admired the quality of the writing. I pick up the FT from time to time and there is always something of interest you might not see elsewhere.

 

I thought I was the only one finding this. I stopped reading the Economist a few months ago.

 

Could you guys elaborate with some specific examples? Are you sure that it's not your own positions that have changed over time?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

There is 'read' & there is 'scan'. We read the Globe and Mail, & Oil & Gas Week. We periodically scan www.straitstimes.com, www.thestandard.com/hk, www.telegraph.com.uk/, www.icenews.is, www.theportugalnews.com, & www.aljazeera.com.

 

We scan primarily for tone, the hot business topics, & assume each publication is overtly biased.

 

SD

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I have decided to cancel the Economist after reading it for 15 years. They seem to have lost their editorial independence. I am looking for a replacement without any success so far. I have always admired the quality of the writing. I pick up the FT from time to time and there is always something of interest you might not see elsewhere.

 

I thought I was the only one finding this. I stopped reading the Economist a few months ago.

 

Could you guys elaborate with some specific examples? Are you sure that it's not your own positions that have changed over time?

 

Liberty, I think I might exaggerate it. It is probably only me who found most publications are not worthwhile reading. With publications I meant newspapers, magazine, etc.

 

I used to read Economist page by page, but nowadays it is getting harder to find something interesting. Maybe I read too much of it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Liberty, I think I might exaggerate it. It is probably only me who found most publications are not worthwhile reading. With publications I meant newspapers, magazine, etc.

 

I used to read Economist page by page, but nowadays it is getting harder to find something interesting. Maybe I read too much of it.

 

I also find most publications not worth reading, and I don't read The Economist page by page because with the 3-4 other books that I usually read in parallels, I'd never get through my stack. But in general I find that they are above other news sources in quality. Definitely not perfect, but better than pretty much all others I can think of.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

From what I read, the general sentiment on this thread is that WSJ is not extremely important and reading a lot of newspapers/magazines is not necessary to be a successful investor. But then what do you guys think of Buffett and Munger's opinion that newspapers are essential, and that they each read six daily in addition to the magazines and various industry publications that Buffett reads (Oil & Gas Journal, Insurance publications, etc.)?

 

And how does reading all of that compare to reading your 10-k/10-q/8-k/conference calls? What would be the ideal way to allocate our time as investors, and why do Buffett/Munger emphasize on newspapers? (Of course, they read a ton of annual reports too.)

 

I would love to get opinions on this, as I am a fairly new investor, and often get lost with the plethora of reading material that is available.  :)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

WSJ is running a President's Day deal for new digital subscriptions, just FYI.  $1 for the first three months.  I let my print subscription lapse years ago, but I think I might go for the digital only.  Now that I have an iPad air, I seem to read more periodicals.  I would prefer to do the FT, but I don't really care much about the global macro opinion stuff.  I just want good business and investment reporting and maybe some analysis of facts on the ground.  Basically, I want pre-murdoch WSJ.  Oh how I wish Bloomberg would buy the FT. 

 

Edit:

 

  Here's the link to the offer:

 

https://buy.wsj.com/offers/html/offerPres2014.html?trackCode=aaqf7cyz#pd

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FWIW, both the WSJ and FT are available free online under "today's paper".  The minor PITA is, any article you may want to read on the WSJ, you need to search the article title in Google news (US edition)  to view it free.

 

Really? I've tried without success to find this on the FT site. Would you mind posting a link?

 

Thank you

Link to comment
Share on other sites

FWIW, both the WSJ and FT are available free online under "today's paper".  The minor PITA is, any article you may want to read on the WSJ, you need to search the article title in Google news (US edition)  to view it free.

 

Really? I've tried without success to find this on the FT site. Would you mind posting a link?

 

Thank you

 

They've put up a paywall since I posted that.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I read the following:

 

WSJ

FT (occasionally)

Fortune

Economist

 

I would say that I have historically gotten the most out of Fortune. I bought into Bank of America after reading a particularly great interview with Brian Moynihan (something like "Can this man save Bank of America?") and I became comfortable investing in Fiat last summer when I recalled a Fortune interview with Sergio Marchionne entitled "Chrysler's Speed Merchant."

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...