AM New York

First of all you can’t go wrong with a free newspaper. As long as you know what you’re getting yourself into. The AM NY paper has some decent snapshots of the news and many times in-​depth articles too. Their entertainment section sucks though. But the real reason I pick up the paper everyday is for the Crossword Puzzle. It’s easy enough for even me to get it.

I remember when AM NY first launched and started showing up on subway stations (along with their aggressive & loud people who distribute them). I was in College and during the first mornings AM NY showed up, I thought it was some political paper that a group of weirdos was trying to push onto us commuters.
Speaking of their pandhandlers, you can usually find them in high volume on the East-​side stations (23^rd street — Baruch, 42^nd — Grand Central, 68^st — Hunter College, etc).
As time wore on, and on the chance occasion I actually took one, I realized that this wasn’t a horrible waste of paper that I initially thought. It’s actually a decent summary newspapers that’s for free. So in essence, you get what you pay for.
It has the feel of a low-​end professional paper (it’s now backed by Cablevision, which owns Newsday… the people who helped start AM NY), and a high-​end school paper. Their are times when they do have some interesting «articles», but they’re far and few between… and the cheap factor of the paper can be felt the minute you pick it up and hold it.
P. S. Don’t forget to wash off that ink/​smudges on your hand when you’re done. ;-)

Love this free newspaper that you can get in the morning! It gives you a quick snapshot of the news so you can be current. Short and sweet for your commute.
They actually even have a sense of humor. Read them on April Fools and they said they were moving to Hoboken.

Pros: You can waste your time doing sudoku/​crossword puzzles while on the train. Free. The newspaper guy readily hands it to me so I never forget. (Thank you newspaper guy!!!)
Cons: Everything else.

100% free
60%- ad
20%-puzzle
20%-text
Not much to read but its free what can you do

They have crosswords. Yay!
If they replaced about 50% of their content with crosswords and sudoku puzzles, they’d so get that 5^th star.
Their letters to the editor are poorly selected or maybe just all their readers suffer from bad attitudes and even poorer analytical skills.

Yeah this paper is a joke and nobody takes it seriously. But dude remember it’s F-​R-​E-​E. Who cares?

I like the Metro more, even though the stories are almost the same. It always has more classifieds than the Metro. Either is a good primer on the day to get some local and world events before you get to work.

I’m not overly crazy about AM New York, but given that its free and is handed to me practically every morning before I get in the train, I find myself reading it anyway. The articles are not amazingly written, the content is community oriented, but at last not organized in a way where it appeals to me. The polls that are conducted for reading material are almost irrelevant, at least the quotes tend to make me think that and even less for the people who are quoting it. The celebrity section seems to trump the actual world news /​local news as its stylishly designed with a funky layout and various dedicated columns. Meanwhile, the actual news content are just cuts from the AP ticker, and laid out in a way where its not conducive to the frontpage headline whatsoever.
Unlike the Times or the Wall Street Journal, the quality of the parchment is crap. Any spill from coffee or water will immediately begin dissolving the material and the smudges from handling the paper are inevitable, especially from this publication. I highly recommend not wearing nice clothes or anything light while reading this paper.

I hate the feeling of newspaper and I particularly hate the smudges on my fingers. I haven’t actually touched a newspaper in about 2 years and I’m a-​OK with that. What really annoys me about AM New York and the Metro? The people handing em out. I don’t freakin want one!!! OK???

Yes, yes, the AM New York is a joke in terms of its journalistic endeavors, but here are a list of reasons why it’s kind of awesome:
1) It’s free.
2) They always have these stupid polls. Like they try to make it look like they care about what the people have to say, but they always ask the shadiest characters. This one poll – something about animal treatment in zoos and one of the responses was, «I don’t know and I don’t care.»
3) The paper quality is cheap as hell; the smudge factor is HUGE. But for some reason, that makes me really happy.
4) They have ridiculous celebrity blurbs.
5) The crosswords really help increase your confidence – [blank] dog (three letters).
All in all, the AM is a joke but it’s become a daily morning routine for me. Actually, I confess. It’s vital that I get the AM; otherwise I just can’t function.

It’s F-​R-​E-​E free.
Makes for a good morning read on the subway.
I wouldn’t pay money for it though.
Sometimes Sudoku is messed up and you can’t finish it.

Pretty limited coverage of anything, but free, and the folks who distribute them are nice.

At first glance, AM New York is just another throw-​a-​way paper, no better than Metro. The poor man’s news source. But read closely dear subway rider: Their journalism may not be prolific, but it is hard hitting.
For example, AM’s coverage of the trans fat ban was much more in depth and independent than even the New York Times’. They wrote «‘To the rich people it doesn’t matter,’ said Vanny Chy, owner of Chicken House on West 36^th Street in Manhattan. ‘But for the poor people who can’t afford more expensive food, they are going to suffer.’» The NYT didn’t even mention that issue, but in their defense I’m sure things do fall through the cracks while you’re busy regurgitating the Health Department’s press releases and writing long features about abstract «class» issues.
Just today, their front page headline was «I-​Mess» (in reference to the Imus remarks). What more could you want from a free paper?
Also, the AM New York distributor at the West 4^th Street station is much more passionate than the Metro distributor. If you don’t take the paper from the AM guy, you feel like you’re taking food off his family’s table.

This paper helps to wake me up in the morning — a little bit of NY news, a little US news, world news, entertainment news, sports, weather, and crossword/​sudoku… and I am set for the day! Make sure to grab one at your nearest subway stop!

I like my mornings to have a bit of a slow build to them: from the no talking or rushing at home period to the full-​gear work mode, things have got to fit into place slowly and any jarring of my morning routine will screw up my whole day. One of my must-​haves for the morning is my cup of coffee for the subway ride and something to read. But I have found that navigating the NYTimes is too difficult with coffee in one hand when you are on an absurdly crowded train (loooove that Midtown morning commute). This, and the fact that I refuse to pay money for any other NY paper, has made AM New York an essential part of my morning ritual by default: it’s compact book-​form size is easy to deal with and the Metro guys just aren’t as aggressive at my stop.
AM New York is, of course, one of the free newspapers that gets shoved in your face at the subway entrance (and exit) every weekday morning so it’s pretty hard to miss. The articles are not that in-​depth, most of the times the national/​world stuff is a day behind the news, and there is plenty of fluff material stuffed between the pages. So it is not anywhere near the best news source out there, as I’m sure you know. As a result, I have to take away one star (it is, afterall, a newspaper).
BUT! Four whole-​hearted stars to the Culture Desk! I have to say, after nearly 9 months of reading AMNY everyday on my way to work, the events calendar in the Live Entertainment has been one of my staples for keeping me up to date on things I want to do (since I find TimeOut to be generally overwhelming). I don’t know exactly who you are Person That Runs The Listings (although, I do vaguely since I found the local music blog you have started to write on
), but I think you are my lost twin! Or… well…we share a lot of interests. And Jay Carr, Mr. Movie Man, we generally always agree on movies and I love that you include reviews on independent films and documentaries as well as the mainstream stuff.
I look forward to that section of the paper every day. It’s the best part of my morning commute (next to the coffee, of course).
FYI: another great listing for nyc: