The Daily News Post Globe Tribune Herald Picayune Times

A Note Before You Read

I built this for myself. It’s for my quiet time in the morning (routine shower sit) so I can catch up on the world once and get on with my day, away from the ads, the riff-raff, social media, etc.

I know there are other options out there, and this isn’t novel. I’m not trying to compete, because there’s literally zero money in it for us. If it helps you, great. If it doesn’t, cool.

You could build this for yourself. Or we split it: every section’s cost is divided among everyone who reads it, so once there are enough of us it costs next to nothing.

What This Is

The Daily News Post Globe Tribune Herald Picayune Times is a daily paper for people who want an objective, Cronkite look at the news. I’m tired of having to sort through slanted views, so I want the reader to see for themselves on the issues.

It has no ads, no outrage, and no algorithm deciding what should make you angry today to keep you addicted to our overlord little rectangles.

By 5 a.m. Eastern it has read the respected wires, the major papers and the trade press, and tells you what happened. Every claim is attributed and linked to its source, and each side of a contested issue gets its say. Just like news used to be.

What it isn’t: it isn’t a newsroom. We don’t do original reporting. Reporters at the outlets we link to do the hard work, and every story sends you to them. If you value a paper we summarize, subscribe to it.

How AI Is Used

I use AI as a search engine: it reads the sources every morning and drafts the summaries, and every claim links back to its source, which is rated independently of its political leanings, so you can check it yourself. It has been prompted to be actually “fair and balanced” (haha), and to read you the news the way Walter Cronkite would. The guardrails:

• Links are checked, not trusted. A story only runs if its link appeared in that morning’s actual search results. Links the AI makes up get dropped automatically.
• Numbers come from the source. Every figure and chart is taken from the article it links to.
• It can still get things wrong. AI can misread a story or leave out context. That’s why every summary links to the original, and why I want to hear about it when it happens.

How We Pick Sources

A paper is only as fair as the way it writes and where it pulls from, so I don’t rate anybody myself. Every outlet gets checked against three independent raters: AllSides, Ad Fontes and Media Bias/Fact Check. We link them for their commentary on the sources. When they disagree about how reliable a place is, we always settle on the strongest critic.

One more thing, and it matters: we are promoting these articles. The summaries are there so you can read them, and every one links straight to the source. We’re not trying to take anything away from these sites — quite literally the opposite. Click through. Go read them. Subscribe to the ones you like.

Then every outlet gets a job:

• Facts. What happened comes from the wires (AP, Reuters, AFP)… where opinionated mass media develops their spin.
• Perspectives. When a story is contested, you get a labeled box: one argument from the left, one from the right — just like the Fairness Doctrine enforced — and both marked as arguments, not factual displays. Only opinion outlets every rater calls reliable are used, and each side gets the same amount of attention from us. We match them so the viewpoints are parallel in how far out they lean. If we can’t find a fair argument from both sides that day, we don’t include it.
• Not used. Cable news — CNN, Fox, MSNBC, Newsmax — all of them, treated exactly the same, because they’re the same spin media.
• Never. Obviously: state propaganda, conspiracy sites, and anything the raters call unreliable. Of course, same rule for everybody. We decide this based on the reliable rating sites.

Two exceptions, because reality. Local news in a city section can supply facts even if it leans, because some towns only have one or two papers left… We show where the raters put each one.

A hobby or trade section (like my interests, blacksmithing and freight) can use specialist sites the raters have never heard of. They probably don’t have political leanings, but if they do, we have searched it. Unrated sites never touch the front page, politics or the economy.

Next to every link there’s a little five-square meter, left to right, showing where the raters put that outlet, with each rater’s own word printed beside it. When they disagree, every spot they picked is filled in. Some of these will surprise you — AllSides rates the AP as leaning left. I show what the raters say, not what I wish they said or what I think or have thought. The whole list is on Our Sources. Think one’s out of date? Tell me and I’ll recheck it.

In summation, our point is transparency. That’s it. Hope you enjoy, and we welcome criticism. We love to be wrong, because when we’re wrong we can improve.

What You Get

• One paper, read once. The news that matters, attributed and linked, every side’s strongest case, no opinion.
• Your own edition. Pick your industry, cities, teams and hobbies, at the depth you want: Headlines, Standard or Deep. Your first edition arrives a few minutes after you sign up (a free edition, once you click the confirmation email).
• Your order. Put your sections in whatever order you like. Change it any time from the “Change your paper” link in every email.
• Your local weather. Enter your ZIP code and the National Weather Service forecast and any alerts lead your paper. Free.
• Read aloud for the commute. One audio file of your paper each morning, in your order, read by one of the top-rated AI voices (ElevenLabs v4 Turbo). You pay only for the sections you have read aloud, split with everyone who listens to the same section. The free edition’s front page is read aloud too.
• Photos and charts. Charts are drawn from the numbers in the reporting. Photos are free, credited Unsplash or public-domain images. We never take a news outlet’s photos; those belong to their photographers.
• Light or dark. Switch the paper between light and dark mode; it remembers.

Why I Built It

From 1949 to 1987, the Fairness Doctrine required broadcasters to cover issues of public importance and to air contrasting views. It protected democracy, and in my opinion it was one of the most important doctrines we’ve ever had.

It was abolished in 1987, and one-sided programming became legal. Then the dominoes of destruction started falling, starting with the massive profits of cable networks and websites, which the doctrine never covered. Everyone followed the money: marketing became the way to grab viewers, and opinion became the product.

I also built it for a simpler reason: I wanted to cut out the noise and the hundreds of ads we all see every day. One paper, read once, and then get on with your day. Reddit and social media do a great job on my ADHD.

Today some of the biggest names in “news” have won defamation cases by arguing that no reasonable viewer would take their hosts’ words as literal fact. Absolutely insane. That isn’t journalism. It’s entertainment wearing a suit to manipulate us. I believe it has pitted Americans against each other with propaganda, and it has done real damage to this country. It’s disgraceful.

The Standard

This paper aims for the standard Walter Cronkite set on the nightly news: report what happened, attribute every claim, keep opinion out, and trust the reader to decide. (He broke his own rule once, on Vietnam in 1968, and he told viewers plainly that it was his opinion when he did.) No paper is perfect, but this one is built to be as objective as we can get.

Our Business Model: Don’t Make Money

J. Parker & Co. is a small LLC, not a nonprofit. The paper just isn’t built to make a profit.

• Free. The daily edition is free: the front page, the world, the economy, technology and business, plus a song and an art lesson. A custom edition made only from the sections below is free too, with no bank account needed.
• Shared cost. Add a niche of your own and you pay what it costs to make, split with everyone who reads it. If 100 readers share a niche, each pays 1/100th. Every niche in your email has a share link, because every friend who joins makes it cheaper for all of you.
• A deposit, then the real cost. Each month you pay the estimate up front. When the month closes, we compare it with the real cost, and anything you overpaid is credited to your next bill, or refunded if it was your last month. One click in any paper unsubscribes you.
• Never more than your quote. If a month costs more than estimated, we cover the difference and fix the estimate.
• The fine print. Stripe can’t charge less than $0.50, so a tiny bill rounds up to that and the rest comes back as credit. You pay by bank account: 0.8%, no fixed fee.

Every dollar in and out is published in the Open Books. Build your edition and see your exact price.

Founding readers: the first 20 people who add a paid section get their first month free.

Already Covered

J. Parker & Co. pays in full for every section the publisher reads himself. Picking them costs you nothing:

• News: front page, economy & markets, elections & close races, and Worth Your Click.
• Business and tech: AI, software development, small business & deals, freight & logistics, roofing & insurance, auto repair & shop business.
• Cities: Birmingham, Alabama, Washington, D.C., Boston, New York City, San Francisco and Austin.
• Sports: SEC football, Alabama football, Auburn football, MLB and the Atlanta Braves.
• Hobbies and culture: sports cards, blacksmithing, classic car restoration, arts & street art, cinema, Song of the Day and the Daily Art History Lesson.
• Your local weather, from the National Weather Service.

Your Data

We keep your email, the sections you pick and your ZIP code, and use them only to make your paper. Payments go through Stripe; we never see your full bank details. We never sell your data. We share only what our service providers need to run the paper, like Stripe for payments and our email service to deliver it. Details are in the privacy policy.

Support a Free and Fair Press

Tell Me When We Get It Wrong

The whole point is neutrality, and I need readers from every side to hold it to that. Tell me when a story leans, leaves something out, gets a fact wrong, or when a source rating looks off. Every report gets read, and I’ll fix what’s wrong. Spot bias or an error? Tell me.

John Parker
Publisher · J. Parker & Co. · Birmingham