Is a Newsweek subscription worth getting?

[Lil Missy]

I have an opportunity to get 1 yr for $20 or 2 yr for $40.

I know it has had some struggles since 2010 and taken over by Daily Beast. It doesn't appear to be a right wing rag.

So, yay or nay?

[librechik]

1. Hell, no!

what tripe

spend your money at The Nation if you need a weekly newsmagazine

[rurallib]

2. I'd go for Mother Jones or the Nation.

[quinnox]

3. Only if junk mail that comes too often

to stuff up the mail box is desired.

[WCGreen]

4. Get the economist...

Much better news and though it tends right, the news sections are top notch.

[MADem]

5. It's OK for bathroom reading, I'd say.

If you like to read on the can, the short articles and snippets are well suited. It's also a small size, making it an easier read than a broadsheet newspaper.

[grasswire]

6. The Nation

Honest, progressive, and deserving of your support.

The Progressive is another good investment, but it is not a weekly.

[salvorhardin]

7. It has slightly more substance than Readers' Digest

And Readers' Digest these days is essentially a blog for older people who don't know what blogs are. Seriously, it's almost devoid of content. Newsweek under Tina Brown only does slightly better.

Save your money or spend it on The Nation.

[RKP5637]

12. Readers' Digest, yep, almost devoid of content except for endless

advertisements and things that fall out or stuffed in as you try to read it ...

[salvorhardin]

17. For as long as I can remember, my mother subscribed to RD

So it was a constant fixture in our house growing up. Then when I went away to college, she bought a subscription for me every year. Despite the hard right lean of the publication, I liked it quite a bit. There was a lot of content in every issue, and it made a welcome change from psych and compsci texts.

But then I let my subscription lapse many years ago and it wasn't until I got my Kindle last year that I decided to try it again.

Totally different!

Gone are the long digested books, gone is the smart practical advice (replaced by blog-style top ten lists), and even the humor sections have been cut back dramatically. Where it used to take me a couple of evenings to read through RD circa 1980, now it took me about 20 minutes.

It's just not worth it, even when it's only a $1 a month.

Both Newsweek and Time have adopted similar editorial models to RD. I figure if I'm going to read blogs, then I'll actually read good blogs, not the watered down tripe that RD, Newsweek, and Time have become.

Sadly, to a certain lesser extent, The Nation and Mother Jones, have both moved in a similar direction. Nowhere near as bad, and The Nation is still well worth the price, but they ain't what they were.

[RKP5637]

25. Pretty much the same here. I grew up always finding something of

interest in RD. We recently got it again and I've tossed it aside for similar reasons as you ...

[salvorhardin]

22. What magazines *are* worth subscribing to?

I started a separate thread for the flip side to Lil Missy's question.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002181920

[Yupster]

28. Chess Life

Where else are you going to keep up with the latest tries against the French Defense Winawer Variation. Not in Newsweek - that's for damn sure.

[JoePhilly]

8. I used to get it ... but dropped it a few years back ... its too slow ... the NET is faster ...

and it was also starting to play the "both sides do it" game ... presenting a crazy GOP view as if it might not be insane, and should be considered.

I couldn't even read it in the bathroom.

[Are_grits_groceries]

9. No!

It's been turned into a mashup of Newsweek, People, and The National Enquirer. They are trying to save it by making it all things to all people. They aren't doing a very good job with any angle.

[Lil Missy]

10. OKAY! NIX THE NEWSWEEK! How about ....

Time? Also, The Week looks interesting.

[liberal N proud]

11. No way

1. You should be able to get the important news right here.
2. There are so many better, real news options listed above.

Not worth the money.

[Quantess]

13. I call it Snoozeweek.

For good reason. The writers take stories that should be really interesting and somehow make them incredibly tedious.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. I concur with people's sugestions above. Much better magazine's out there. Last time I picked one up

it felt lighter than a comic book. Looked like one too.

[Nictuku]

15. It might be worth it just for this:

[link:http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/17/newsweek-obama-dumb-cover_n_1210182.html|

[JackRiddler]

16. You can get a Harper's subscription for the same or less...

and actually learn stuff. While laughing! www.harpers.org

Newsweek recently gave up on the pretense that it even does news. It's just a blog-in-print, an attempt to forestall its inevitable demise.

[Liquorice]

18. As others have said, it really isn't. I had it for a year, and I was really disappointed

with it. I subscribed because a woman I admire, Tina Brown, was named editor-in-chief. I was really suprised by the poor quailty.

[otohara]

19. Get The Economist

Newsweek is weak!

[Fuzz]

20. Eh, not really. Occasionally they have an interesting article, but ours is in the bathroom. /cough

[isaac2731]

21. NOT EVEN !

I was a subscriber for a long time. When Brown took over it became too soapy. Then their customer service said I'd have to buy another subscription to read on my iPad. Nope, no more Newsweek

[customerserviceguy]

23. Here's an idea

Get a magazine subscription for free. Go to www.magsformiles.com and you can trade airline miles for many magazines, cash free. Sorry, I couldn't find Newsweek, but the Economist is there.

Need airline miles but don't plan on flying? Go to www.freefrequentflyermiles.com and look up some suggestions. Sometimes all you have to do is register for stuff, and you can get freebies. In combination with Points.com, you can swap miles around between airline plans, and boost up mileage totals. For awhile, you could earn free miles from Microsoft's Club Bing, who knows when they'll bring that back?

Also, let's face it, two years is 104 issues. For $40, that's less than a postage stamp per issue. It's not terribly expensive as things go.

[Lil Missy]

26. That's a good point. That would be 38 cents per issue.

[Nye Bevan]

24. No. Newsweek and Time are lightweight fluff.

The Economist is great, but much more expensive.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

27. no, just steal it from your doctors waiting room. n/t

[jberryhill]

29. Cockatiels seem to like it better than Parrots

But be sure to take the staples out before lining the cage.