How To Read the News for Free

It costs money to report the news, which means that it often costs money to read it as well. Here at Hey Philly, we think supporting quality journalism is super important — but we also understand that sometimes one too many news subscriptions can break the bank.

The good news: There’s a number of free (and legal!) ways to tap into the stories of the day. (No, I am not going to endorse any paywall evasion tricks you may have read on the internet.) Here’s a guide on how to access several local and national news sources at no cost to you.

📚 Tap Into the Free Library’s News Offerings

Step one: If you don’t have one already, get yourself a Free Library of Philadelphia card. (It’s totally free, and it unlocks all kinds of other resources too!) Here’s how.

Once you do that, you’ll have access to lots of news, both at physical library branches and in the comfort of your own home. Some highlights:

The New York Times

The library has a subscription to “New York Times Anywhere,” which will grant you a 72-hour digital pass to the Times’ website, and you can always get a new one when your first one expires. Here are instructions on how to get a pass. (Sadly, games like the crossword aren’t included, and neither are recipes from the cooking section.)

Philadelphia Business Journal

Accessing full articles on the Philadelphia Business Journal’s website is as simple as selecting “Philadelphia Business Journal Online” on the Free Library’s “Databases” webpage and entering your library card credentials.

The Philadelphia Inquirer

To get access to Philly’s newspaper of record, you’ll want to go to the library’s “Databases” page, scroll down to the “Philadelphia Inquirer” option, click the link, and log in with your library card number and pin.

That will take you to the website Newsbank. From there, you can choose to read the text of individual articles (select option listed as “Text” from the “Sources” list and then choose which issue you want to read) or images of the paper as it appeared in print (select the option with the “Image” format).

Other Philly News Sources

Newsbank also has some other Philly news sources that would normally be paywalled, like The Philadelphia Tribune, Philadelphia Magazine, and Chestnut Hill Local.

You can see recent issues of these publications by, once again, navigating to the library’s “Databases” page, choosing “Newsbank Main Menu,” and then selecting “Philadelphia News Sources” from the “Search Shortcuts” list. To find sources where you’re more likely to find the news of the day (rather than archived articles from years ago), look for sources with dates ending in “Current.”

💻 Check Out Some Non-Paywalled Sources

Not all news operates on a subscription model, so try checking out some always non-paywalled sources to see what’s going on. Some of my favorite free-to-read online sources for national news include NPR, the Associated Press, and NBC News.

There are also lots of state and local news sites that don’t require a subscription. Here’s a selection of a few you can browse online:

You might also want to try reading some of these hyperlocal news sources, many of which don’t have paywalls.

And, of course, don’t forget about the City Cast Philly podcast and the Hey Philly newsletter 😉