RIP Newsweek in print

Twenty years ago, Newsweek was an important and interesting publication.

Over the last decade it morphed into something about as interesting as My Weekly Reader. Do they still publish that?

 

I think O_T was working the "commie rag" angle.

 

Newsweek did one thing great -- the page at the front of the magazine rounding up the best quotes and cartoons of the week. I still would look for that whenever I was out, but it was disappointing. In the late '80s/early '90s when they started it, though, it was a riot and all fresh material to most of us.

 

Newsweek was its own worst enemy.

 

Copies used to be given to every Peace Corps volunteer. They stopped that about midway through my service and I think I was one of the few who didn't care.

Apparently many former PCVs had fond memories of getting them and having the opportunity to read English, but by 2007, I, like many other PCVs, had Internet in my house. Since we got them in bunches and weeks/months late, it wasn't like there was any news involved.

But it really was the end of an era for Peace Corps ... and didn't say much about the future of Newsweek.

 

Leaving aside the incontrovertible fact that Newsweek is a commie rag (except the God weeks) ... what news magazine is surviving? The daily newspaper has a tough enough time. Warmed-over, week-old "analysis" would seem totally useless these days.

Haven't seen Time or the rest but I can't imagine a printed copy of a newsmagazine having any kind of chance these days.

 

Some journalism grad student somewhere could write an interesting research paper on how that page served to blaze the path for Internet news gathering and particularly into packaging.

 

Does The Economist count? To me, it's still a great read.

 

I am mostly just an airport reader of that, but is it a newsmagazine -- reacting to last week's events? If so, I would include that, yeah, although it's definitely for a niche. (A well-heeled niche that is a good idea to serve, but still a niche.) But it has always struck me as far more "magazine" than "news."

 

You know what killed it? Muslim rage.

 

Was gonna say the same about doctor's offices, but, yeah, this. Cuts down the choices for men's reading to ESPN The Magazine in most medical establishments.