Friday, June 5, 2009

My Gratuitous Endorsement Of Newsweek

TW: Some of you may subscribe to Newsweek, we do. They are getting some press this week because they are having Steven Colbert as guest editor for next week's issue. I could care less and actually would prefer they avoided stunts but they are trying to keep their magazine going so whatever. This week's issue took some shots at Oprah Winfrey, I did not read the article because I really do not follow her.

All that said, if you are interested in a serious American news magazine, I would recommend the new Newsweek. They have finally figured out that with the internet a news weekly not only cannot provide timely "latest news" reporting, they should not try. They are now focused on analysis and in-depth reporting. They are trying to become more like the Economist and less like People/Time. Their articles remain briefer than a monthly like Atlantic etc.

Economist remains by far the best English language news magazine but now at least there will be an American competitor and one with the occasional cool photograph (Economist askews photos although they come up with some good illustrations). Not surprisingly some of the bloggery is pooh-poohing the shift, demonstrating yet again that innovation almost always breeds contempt until and unless...it actually works.

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