i

If I had to define myself I would always have said "I'm a Guardian reader". And that was both literally at metaphorically true for many years after I left university but in the end it got to the point where it simply wasn't getting read so I stopped having it delivered relying on the Web and the radio for my news and Slate for my fix of Doonesbury.

In fact this last was the final nail in the coffin: once I could read Doonesbury on the Web the last reason left to keep reading The Guardian vanished.

And then 18 months ago I discovered i. I guess this would have been shortly after it was launched. It's a tabloid and it's essentially a précis of the best bits from The Independent and it's pretty good at what it does. I think they've learned some lessons from Web site design, in that the first two inside pages (2 and 3) is a mass of very short stories, mainly pointing you to the longer version of each story further into the paper (referenced by page number). It's a good read, and I read most of it (or at least scan the headlines of most of it) except the sport, natch, every day. There's both sorts of crossword and the usual sudoko rubbish too to keep you amused on the train.

But here's the best bit: unlike The Guardian (now £1.40 on weekdays, £2.30 on Saturday I believe) or The Independent (£1.20/£1.60) it's 20p a day Monday to Friday and 30p on Saturday!

Having tried it for a couple of weeks at 20p a pop I signed up for a subscription. £25 got me a six month subscription and, owing to a screw up in their part, I actually ended up with eighteen months of vouchers, so I'm now coming to the end of the deal which should have cost me 16p per issue (but actually cost me 5p, ahem) and I can renew for six months, still for £25, or for a year for £45¹ (14p per issue).

It's a no brainer really at that price.

The only question is: if you asked me now ... would I still say "I'm a Guardian reader"?