Villages News questions
 

As someone who moved to TV recently (April), can someone please give me a quick rundown of the local news sources.

I have inferred from prior threads that one is owned by TV ("the family" I assume) and others are owned by outsiders. I see references to news sources that "shall not be named" and others saying that certain links are not allowed.

So what is the deal? As someone who generally avoids mainstream media I'd like some of your perspectives on the local news options.

The Villages Daily Sun - either owned or closely tied to the Developer. Does not appear to have an online version. I am not a subscriber (don't want to give them money, don't need a bunch of paper to dispose of). What has been described on these boards it sounds like there is a lot of happy news from the area, some national news, and a good amount of advertising for the Villages.

These are the local(ish) sources I follow - all online:

***************** dot com - The news source that shall not be named. An online-only "paper" that primarily reports on police activity, local government meetings (CDD, POA, BoCC), and a large number of letters to the editor. It has been stated a number of times that the principal reporter (owner?) was fired from the Villages and has an axe to grind. The reporting seems to be fairly neutral though since it covers a lot of police activity, there is a lot of crime reported.

Leesburg Daily Commercial - Covers stories local to Leesburg and Lake county. The Villages is mentioned occasionally.

Florida Phoenix and Tampa Bay Times - Florida-centric sources including much about Florida government and politics. Not focussed on the Villages but their area of concern overlaps with the Villages.

The Villages Dailey Sun is a great source of things happening here. The local radio station is also a great source.

The Daily Sun is about TV in a positive sense in that it talks mostly about activities and events significant to TVer's. It is the go to source to find info on entertainment, clubs, etc. It does not report the under belly, like doings at the bars or much about the crime scenes. The not to be mentioned site has historically reported TV negatively, meaning the underbelly (a population of aprox 150,000 actually has crime), but recently seems to be more neutral.

And the cheapest compared to some others close the TV.

Several times now I have been on the not to be named news site villagesxxxx.com and had very scary messages come up about infections, ransom, etc. The last one appeared after I accidently hit the continue button. I have reported problems to the "contact use" button with no response, use with caution.

I haven't seen those but I also use an adblocker. Could those messages be coming from advertisements?

The few times my adblocker has been disabled I have been inundated with ads to the point that it made the site unviewable. As it seems they are hosting a very large number of ads on their page, it wouldn't surprise me if some of those ads were from questionable sources.

“The **************.com". Are they a part of "The Villages” or the fact that they have “-news.com” a tactic to use “The Villages" in their posts but are not associated with TV?

PS
I have the full name in this post but ended displayed as: “The **************.com"
Looks like they are NOT a part of TV.

We view Skip Smith on Tout Tube every Saturday. You will hear about a lot of things you didn't in the Morse's "Rag"

Also the Orlando Sentinel, though like most requires subscription
 

Orlando Sentinel – Orlando Sentinel: Your source for Orlando breaking news, sports, business, entertainment, weather and traffic

for the big city news

Several business in this area use "The Villages" or "Villages" in their names but are not associated with TV. There are even some other communities named "The Villages of..." that are not associated with TV. Both The Property Owner's Association of the Villages (villagespoa.org) and Talk of The Villages have "The Villages" in their name but are not associated with TV?

Villages News covers news about the Villages and the areas immediately surrounding the Villages. The name seems to be descriptive and appropriate, just like Tampa Bay Times, Washington Post, Orlando Sentinel, .....

That's understandable but it appears to be some friction between TV & “The **************.com” as “The **************.com” is the only one I’ve seen where they X it out as happened in this post.

I think “The **************.com” is sometimes redundant as they sometime post new but similar/same comments a few days later.

There is an android app for the daily sun.

Search for

The Villages Daily Sun Mobile

Thanks. There is one for iPhones also.

I'm still not convinced I want to create an account and provide payment information.

I don't see any news to read on the app. I see some links to videos and streaming but no articles to read. Do they appear once I pay for a subscription or am I currently seeing all the available content?

You can get a Daily Sun Paper at your postal station where you pick up your mail as they have paper vending machines located there. I thought most papers including the Sun gave you digital access in addition to the driveway ones?