I only consider myself an amateur historian, but I like to read news articles from my particular area of study. It's useful to get a sense of society at the time, and allows you to get a feel for values and societal norms, as well as first and second hand accounts of events. But when you read news articles you have to remember it's still media, designed to cause a reaction. You should identify any biases the writer and the paper may have before taking information as fact.