The disappearing magazine

U.S. News & World Report lost me with the butt-ugly redesign that marked its shift from weekly to biweekly. It apparently lost most of its readers at it went totally online.

Now Newsweek follows with a similarly bad transition. It now looks like an advertising supplement to a real magazine one assumes it should be attached to. I simply do not get the new look or approach, and think it will fail. It reminds me too much of The New Republic, which just became a newsletter of columns and nothing else. Now Newsweek is about a three-minute scan for me. If there's anything good, someone will send a link to me anyway, so I can't see myself renewing.

Meanwhile, The Economist continues to rock. BusinessWeek still seems worthwhile. Time . . . well, it's still a news magazine at least.

I find myself slimming down . . . and increasingly relying on online sources.

Two things I will not give up in paper for now: NYT and WSJ. WaPo may go.

Comments

[JFRiley]

Too funny, I was just complaining about how my Newsweek looked last night as i tossed it away, I thought it was just me. I had planned to jump ship to US News, but it sounds like they suck too.

Anyone know if Time is any good?

[Jesse Krembs]

Hey Tom, have you thought about getting a Kindle DX...you can read RSS feeds (a little rough through google reader mobile), have newspapers, magazine subscriptions, and read books. As long as your in the US most of it will auto update via wireless.

[Robert Green]

I agree with Jesse, Tom. You really should give the Kindle a look. I have a Kindle 2 and love it. The DX will have a larger screen but I find the Kindle 2 just right and easily portable. One nice thing is I have essentially have eliminated travelling with books. Take my Kindle and the issues of Economist I have yet to read for when no electronics can be turned on on the plane.

Subscription to the WaPo is great--arrives every morning for about $10.00 per month. I may even drop my WSJ paper subscription and go with the Kindle version.

[JW.]

Agree with comments on Newsweek: I picked it up last week and could not easily tell the difference between editorial, advertorial or advertising, it all merges into one. And are the articles even more abbreviated than they were before?

I'm finding more and more (printed) magazines containing articles that have no substance beyond the heading and the first paragraph -- making me feel like I've just paid 'three course meal' prices for an entree, a bread roll and a glass of water.