I just finished all the vocab in HSK 5. Trying to find an appropriate level to practice reading but having real problems with both the New York Times and the China Daily papers. Help?

I have not really found any news sites that are "easier" to read but with the help of plugins I can get quick translations and add the new words i found to skritter fast and easy. Skritters bookmarklet helps a great deal with adding new vocabulary. I have found that Chinese TV is much easier to understand since they use less domain specific vocabulary and less proper names. At the same time I also get to listen and reading at the same time and that helps, at least for me. Pleco in real life is also a life safer. I use the handwriting look-up feature daily. I try to combine all sorts of reading daily, some news, some tv shows, some books. It do take time but it also do get easier all the time. I now read significantly faster than before.

Some material that I have linked to before that can be of use for you:

http://chinesereadingpractice.com/ Graded reading with translations and comments.

https://www.chinadialogue.net/ Articles about the environment.

http://www.slow-chinese.com/ Reading, podcast etc. Interesting concept.

http://marcopoloproject.org/online/ - It's newspaper material, but because they have to be selected and translated, obviously the content itself isn't that new anymore. There are also 3 levels of difficulty.

I was just wondering, have you studied these HSK lists without any reference i.e. text/work-books?

Because I did the complete HSK list that way and noticed that I know the words well but have not a single clue how to actually use these characters/words in context!

I'm back to my workbooks now only studying words that I actually use alongside.

Yep went all the way through hsk1 to hsk5 without much reading practice and then jumped straight into the china daily.