Richmond Times-Dispatch

I like this paper and want it to succeed but I also want to warn about the subscription. I got a Sunday only delivery for three months and it never showed up even though I called repeatedly. After two months I received a few papers. Finally I discovered that it was going to my next door neighbor though our number is on the door. They renewed the subscription though I asked them not to. Papers piled up while I was gone and now I have a collection agent after me even though I called and asked for the subscription to stop afteer the end of payment each time!!! (they said it was a grace period just in case I wanted to use the account and I should have called again) Horrible cusomer service.

This serves as a warning to anyone thinking of subscribing as I post about my newest RTD ripoff! Since last year I have gotten a rate of $ 12.87 for 13 weeks Sunday only delivery. It is a ‘special rate’ but when I call customer service I get the rate. Last bill sent in January actually showed that 13 week rate of $ 12.87 so to eliminate extra time paying bills, I doubled it to 26 weeks, paid $ 25.74 and noted my calendar the last issue on July 10^th. Yesterday I receive a bill that subscription ended March 20 (today is April 9^th! why did that take so long?) and the rate is now 4 weeks -$ 10.18. Several calls, bounces to supervisors and I finally get Erica who could have cared less. After explaining my issue for 3^rd time, now to Erica, and put on hold again, Erica offered the $ 12.87 rate for 13 weeks but starting today! But I had already paid the $ 12.87 rate, doubled it for 26 weeks to take me through July 10^th. Why not honor that payment made back in January (they could have called or emailed me back in January if that was not going to be honored). They were trying to squeeze a few extra dollars out of me obviously which out of principle is wrong! So I was so fed up and furious — cancelled (Erica seemed too eager to do so) and of course now feel I was ripped off. The other issue I had last year to warn you about when you subscribe that they don’t tell you is you will get special promotional type publications (called magazines) inserted into your paper or special holiday publications that are extra that results in your subscription to running out earlier. It took me several tenacious calls to get my account noted NO EXTRAS and the credits due to me.
I did call the District Supervisor, Mr. Baker, after my call /​cancellation to let him know why I cancelled and how I feel I was ripped off. Let’s see if he can or will do anything. He was very helpful in the past with delivery problems.

Worst experience ever! Didn’t renew my subscription but they keep delivering. Finally able to cancel and still demanding payment for the papers I didn’t even want! Even turned over my account to a collection agency to get the $ 10 they deem past due.
Don’t waste your time with this rag!

Evil Empire, worst newspaper, don’t report real news! What a joke! Too politically correct for an imbalanced world.

Worst digital experience EVER !!! So now the RTD is going away with their kindle edition, and I’m trying to sign up for what they call «all access». It should be called no access! Then I call their customer service number and get their phone tree, push 2 to for questions on all access and instead get looped back to their main menu.
YIKES! What decade are they in!!!

May have been a good paper ages ago but now it’s just sad. If you have to get a paper just stick with the Washington Post.

I use to always get the Times-​Dispatch but now it’s a die’n paper now. Now I only get the Sunday paper so the wife get the coupons other wise I wouldn’t get it at all. When you go to read it, it is pretty much old news there’s not much in there any more. And their web site ain’t much better. But in their defense all the news papers are die’n out the internet is killing them all.

I grew up with the «Washington Post» so I’m picky about my newspapers, and when I lived in Florida, it was the «St. Petersburg TImes», another top-​rated US daily.
This paper seems to be a conservative mouthpiece disguised as a journalism outlet. I do think Dana Craig is a good restaurant reviewer. I used to be the restaurant reviewer for
and we agreed more often than not on most places. But ever since the paper bought out
, there isn’t any competition except «Style Weekly», so it’s not surprising that the reviews aren’t as broad in covering all genres and price ranges anymore.
I also had a lot of delivery problems… namely, the paper rarely arrived or was delivered to my neighbor and I would have to sneak up on their porch and retrieve it every morning.

Often called the «Richmond Times-​Disgrace» by the locals, I have never been a huge fan. It is pretty clear that the views of this paper lean for more to the right and they make no bones about it. The paper, as with most around the country, has gone even farther South as the Internet has taken over as many people’s prime source of news.
They have farmed out the local employment listings to Yahoo Hot Jobs which annoys me for some reason. I do like the Monday Metro Business section as a great way to keep up on developments locally. The website is pretty bad as well.

I enjoy reading the Richmond Times Dispatch with breakfast to catch any stories I missed the day before on Google News, and on my mobile to get local stories regardless of where I am.
Unlike other reviewers I have been reasonably satisfied with reading the print version of the Times Dispatch, which I get daily. I admit their regular website is rather a disaster, but their mobile website for smartphones is actually very nice.
The editorials sections is conservative heavy, but I am generally satisfied with their respectably neutral reporting in news pieces. The Times Dispatch, along with most print media, is entirely incapable of reporting on technology, but I don’t really consider this an issue since it’s not what I’m looking for in a newspaper (I go to Slashdot, et al for tech news).
The Bottom Line: I am generally satisfied with the Richmond Times Dispatch for my morning reading, and consider it a competent source of news when reading from my mobile, but would not recommend it for general online reading.

The death of the daily newspaper globally is exemplified really well by the RTD — their failure to recognize that the world was moving to the web for information was the harbinger of their doom.
They lost me as a paid subscriber with their page 1 headline in ’02 that blared, «Blacks Take Top Acting Prizes» — seeming to suggest that Denzel & Halle stole them.
I love newspapers. Unfortunately, when even the NY Times admits that they’re in financial trouble and struggling to maintain reader-​share, you’ve gotta bring your A+ game. The RTD, on its best day, only rates a C+.

Normally I read the online version of the paper and that’s why my review is so low. Just when I had gotten used to the new website they launched a couple years back they decided to change it yet again. The new format is boring, impossible to see anything worth reading about, and contains so much ad space I can’t tell what’s news and what’s an advertisement. I’m extremely disappointed and honestly have stopped going to the website.
I also had the paper delivered to my house for a while but when the driver kept throwing the paper from his car into my 99 year old single pane glass windows and customer service simply said «we’ll talk to him» I had enough of that too.
I do like the restaurant reviews but thats about it.