Newsweek

Here's why:

1)...It's hard to escape the slew of here-today-gone-tomorrow "celebrities" that seem to increasingly grace the pages of Newsweek. In just the last couple months, P. Diddy has had at least four articles written about him. ... Is this news?

2) All ads, all the time! Even the "news" articles are ads. One entire issue was dedicated to the Playstation 2. Recently they jettisoned a couple news articles to include reviews of high-end cars, wine, and other jealousy-inducing items. You would assume from the tone of so many Newsweek tech articles lately that unless one buys the latest battery-powered gizmo, life on earth as we know it would cease. Better treasure your last breath - and how convenient this transition since several times this year the magazine has been overwhelmed by healthy lifestyle inserts that appear to be part of the magazine. But a closer examination reveals them to be nothing more than massive ads for drugs and health-related products. Very deceptive, since there is no empirical evidence included to counter the claims being made in the article-like inserts. Simply appalling.

3) Pop culture run amok. Any aspirations Newsweek ever had to being a top news journal have been jettisoned. Instead we are greeted with a lowbrow look at "What's Cool" rather than "What's Newsworthy". When everything is relevant, nothing is.

4) Lowering of journalistic quality. Where have the editorial works by the movers and shakers that shape the future (and accurately recall the past) gone to? You used to be able to read an article or editorial by someone like Solzhenitsyn or Kissinger, but now you are more like to get an article by J. Lo or Aguilera....P>...P>6) Target audience dumb-down. It seems the target audience for the magazine consists of teenage girls who follow hip-hop and their video game-playing boyfriends. Does someone need to educate that group? Certainly. But with everyone rushing in to fill that market niche, isn't there anything left for adults? Even a casual read of featured writers like Anna Quindlen reveals a complete lack of logic on the pages of the magazine. No wonder the current generation lacks discernment.

In short, find something else to keep you abreast of the real news. Newsweek's day has come and gone.


News? Heck, it's indistinguishable from People Magazine!   December 10, 2002
Daniel L Edelen (Mt. Orab, OH USA)
48 out of 78 found this review helpful

My wife and I are longtime subscribers to Newsweek, but no more. We are finally letting our subscription lapse.

Here's why:

1) We didn't initially subscribe to People Magazine. It's hard to escape the slew of here-today-gone-tomorrow "celebrities" that seem to increasingly grace the pages of Newsweek. In just the last couple months, P. Diddy has had at least four articles written about him. Who the heck cares? Is this news?

2) All ads, all the time! Even the "news" articles are ads. One entire issue was dedicated to the Playstation 2. Recently they jettisoned a couple news articles to include reviews of high-end cars, wine, and other jealousy-inducing items. You would assume from the tone of so many Newsweek tech articles lately that unless one buys the latest battery-powered gizmo, life on earth as we know it would cease. Better treasure your last breath - and how convenient this transition since several times this year the magazine has been overwhelmed by healthy lifestyle inserts that appear to be part of the magazine. But a closer examination reveals them to be nothing more than massive ads for drugs and health-related products. Very deceptive, since there is no empirical evidence included to counter the claims being made in the article-like inserts. Simply appalling.

3) Pop culture run amok. Any aspirations Newsweek ever had to being a top news journal have been jettisoned. Instead we are greeted with a lowbrow look at "What's Cool" rather than "What's Newsworthy". When everything is relevant, nothing is.

4) Lowering of journalistic quality. Where have the editorial works by the movers and shakers that shape the future (and accurately recall the past) gone to? You used to be able to read an article or editorial by someone like Solzhenitsyn or Kissinger, but now you are more like to get an article by J. Lo or Aguilera. How Eleanor Clift can stay with this magazine and still look at herself in the mirror is beyond me. At least George Will has some other outlets for his work.

5) Calling Anne Coulter! The magazine was never known for being centrist in tone and - with the exception of Will - continues to drift left. But curiously, the left it is drifting towards resembles more the left of eighteen year old Brown University students than the left of, say, Tom Daschle. If ever the left was irrelevant in modern discourse, it's displayed in all its glory in the pages of Newsweek.

6) Target audience dumb-down. It seems the target audience for the magazine consists of teenage girls who follow hip-hop and their video game-playing boyfriends. Does someone need to educate that group? Certainly. But with everyone rushing in to fill that market niche, isn't there anything left for adults? Even a casual read of featured writers like Anna Quindlen reveals a complete lack of logic on the pages of the magazine. No wonder the current generation lacks discernment.

In short, find something else to keep you abreast of the real news. Newsweek's day has come and gone.


A delicate balance   July 21, 2003
Andy Orrock (Dallas, TX)
48 out of 103 found this review helpful

You've got to know you're not getting The Economist when you sign up to buy Newsweek. Not that that's an inherently bad thing. Newsweek needs to be a lot of things to a lot of people, so it can't be the in-depth, serious think-piece journal that a lot of people seem to want it to be.

But let's give Newsweek credit: they have a delicate balance to achieve, and they seem to get it right. The Periscope section has snap and wit. Its Conventional Wisdom Watch always seems to get the direction of its famous arrows exactly right. And its collection of trenchant political cartoons and on-the-mark quotations from the past week's main newsfigures does a great job capturing the pulse of the country.

That's balanced against some great writing. Michael Isakoff is by most accounts the country's best investigative reporter. Howard Fineman's talents as a political writer are unmatched. Jonathan Alter's work never disappoints. And Johnnie L. Roberts knows the business of entertainment like few others.

My one complaint - and and this is where The Economist supporters are on the mark - is with the US-centric viewpoint of the magazine. The ROW ('rest of the world') seems to get the short shrift from time to time. Certainly compared to the resolutely international perspective of the Economist. It's a shame the *international* edition of Newsweek isn't published here. In that edition, the magazine is literally turned inside out: the US pieces smaller, the ROW pieces larger.

Newsweek is, after all, a unit of The Washington Post. If anyone can pull off credible international journalism, it's Katherine Graham's company. Let's hope that Iraq, North Korea and other worldly issues force the editors to let more of that international edition flavor seep into what we see here.


Rubbish   March 6, 2006
Naomi Jakobs (Pensacola)
30 out of 42 found this review helpful

Here is the publication that irresponsibly ran articles falsely accusing American troops of desecrating the Quran, which sparked riots across the Muslim world which killed many people and irreparably damaged our reputation.

Plus, "Newsweek" is the source for the vile dribblings of Jonathan Alter, one of the smarmiest, most dishonest, intolerant, cynical, and whiny columnists in the history of writing.

"Newsweek" is so bad, it makes "Time" look like a credible publication. And that speaks volumes.

Save your money--read the internet. Or a fortune cookie. Either way, you will be getting more reliable and interesting news.


"The Progressive" for Glossy Types.   May 31, 2006
Bernard Chapin (CHICAGO! USA)
28 out of 45 found this review helpful

I decided that I had to write a review about Newsweek this morning, after I came across yet another biased, over-hyped cover story. This particular one is entitled, "Rethinking the Marriage Crunch," and goes back on everything they presented 20 years ago about a woman's chances of getting married later in life. This was undoubtedly very easy for them to do as they probably had no evidence for their assertion the first time around, and neglected to have any on this occasion. I really think another reviewer's comparison to People is quite apt, but Newsweek also provides a reliably pro-sexual revolution and pro-sixties counter-culture take on almost every issue. Two years ago, we were made privy to another bit of front page sensationalism concerning "Infidelity Chic." Yes, it seems, according to their sources, spousal cheating is all the rage even though they argue, without even a hint of contradiction, that everybody still wants to get married as much as ever before. I find the magazine to be [...] as they offer opinion instead of news; theirs is a mission of persuasion. Overall, there is little of which to recommend this publication as it is geared for a readership of trivial people who possess the depth of a kiddy pool.