I used to subscribe to weekly news magazines. First it was Time Magazine. Then Newsweek for awhile. The I received a free offer for U.S. News and World Report. Then, as a subscriber to public radio, I was once again favored with a subscription to Newsweek.
Currently I don’t subscribe to any weekly “news magazines”, not even the ones freely offered – though next time I renew my local PBS station subscription I might accept the offer.
Why don’t I subscribe? Well, when it comes to news magazines it seems that by the time the magazine arrives the subject matter has been subjected to endless real time analysis on cable TV, in “the blogs”, in the online news journals, etc. So the one time benefit of news magazines – the in depth analysis of “the news” – has lost something.
That dosn’t mean I won’t subscribe to print magazines. I still do, especially ones that cover topic in the type of depth that is rarely found elsewhere, especially online.
I’m not certain what the future of print news journalism is. I suspect it will survive but its format is likely to change to where “the news” is the news that Persona X has written an in depth article reviewing the news . . and that Personal X is a person worth taking the time to read, if only in print.
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